Sympathy for the Devil {Liam Stewart | The Darkest Minds}

2. Banshees

They, for lack of a better word, toured across America for the better part of two years, Clancy, his hoard of bodyguards, and Mags. Mags had never had a best friend, sure she had friends when she was younger, but they were more circumstantial, they were the kids she sat next to in class and played with at recess, and when they started dying and being taken away, she was one of the last so eventually-

She didn't like to think about that. Not if she didn't have to.

The point is, Mags is pretty sure by the time they've reached the one-year anniversary of their meeting, Clancy might be her best (and only, though she doesn't like to admit it) friend. It's not like she has a big pool to choose from; all the adults they speak to either walk on eggshells around them or treat them like criminals, so they've had to rely on each other. They share fairly cushy hotel rooms, eat a strict, doctor-prescribed diet of mostly vegetables, and spend their time not learning names or faces because they're constantly on the move. They get used to life on the road, and with each other, and so when security starts to get lax and trust them, allowing them to be alone in hotel rooms or green rooms together, they develop their powers.

Mags isn't scared of hers like you would think. Of course she doesn't want to be found out, but she got into this mess by levelling her school. She refuses to say out loud how she did it, but eventually Clancy pulls the memory from her. Side by side they watch a young Maggie Lyn terrified, lying on the ground beside a shape that distorts in and out of her memories; she thinks it might be a boy but she's not quite sure, as teachers debate on what to do with her (them, perhaps?). In the memory, the teachers approach them, approach the shape next to her with open hostility, and everyone feels the Earth rumbling as Maggie's eyes glow scarlet, and she pulls a hand from the ground, ripping with it a stream of lava from the very Earth.

"Don't touch -!" The final word is also distorted in the memory as the younger version of Maggie roars out flames and directs streams of magma at the now cowering teachers, while her name is hollered from somewhere that sounds far away, and a little not real.

Clancy turns to look at Mags in the present, sees the way her cheeks are burning red, and presses his hands to her cheeks. It's with shock that Mags looks back at him, tears in her eyes as she looks away from the scene, not even aware of the fire stirring and making it's way up her throat until she sees the glow of his eyes.

"Mags..." He murmurs, and he can feel as she wills the fire in her throat to die down, now that she knows it's there. They find themselves back on the plush floor of the hotel room, sitting across from each other, cross legged. Pulling out of his grip, Mags presses her hands to her mouth and begins to sob, knees coming up to her chest to form a protective ball around herself.

"Why is it like that? Why-" She cuts herself off at the second question because she can feel the fire in her stirring again, and she has to try and either contain it or calm down. Looking up, she sees Clancy, eyes wide but still glowing, and he reaches out, pulls her into a hug.

"It's okay." The way he says it, so soft and reassuring, she can't help but instantly believe it. Once her emotions have passed, she peels her fingers away from her mouth and wraps them around him in return.

"Don't do that." Was not what he had expected her to say, and when he freezes where his hand is rubbing soothing circles into her back, she elaborates. "Don't try and control me like that, please, Clancy."

"I was trying to help." He was clearly indignant as he pulled away from her, and Mags too scooted back.

"Yeah, but I had it under control. Sometimes I just gotta feel things." Shrugging helplessly, she can't meet his eyes, and instead stands, goes and takes a pen from the nightstand, and starts chewing on it like a snack as she lounges across one of the beds. Clancy watches but doesn't say anything.

"We're supposed to be training, working with our powers. I can't do that with anyone else." There was something plaintive about his voice that had Mags softening, and it was with a sigh that she rolled over onto her back and bit off the end of the pen with a crack, heating the metal in her mouth and swallowing it.

"I'm not- my mind's not a toy, Clance," she begins, "so don't just do shit all willy-nilly, let me know ahead of time what you wanna do, that's all I ask." He considers this for a moment before standing, coming to sit on the edge of the bed beside where she was laying.

"Okay." He agreed, looking over her as she bit off another section of pen. The way his gaze brushed down her body, even for the barest moment, made her uncomfortable enough to clear her throat and wiggle into a similar sitting position. "So are they like, snacks? Do they taste good?" Clancy gestured to the half-eaten pen in her hand, thinking back to the car antennas she sometimes liked to break off and munch on, and the metal ruler he'd seen her mould into a metal version of a paper plane and then eat in three quick bites when left alone in a teacher's lounge.

"No but it's satisfying." She grinned at him. "I like the crunch." After a beat, she admitted, "I mean, it doesn't digest; I think I'm full of liquid metal, I sneezed some of it the other day and almost set the curtains on fire."

Clancy looks impressed, but doesn't ask much more about it, instead turning on the TV and laughing at Mags' involuntary groan of pain as their PSA comes on. Side by side, they fall asleep there with the TV on.

Mags dreams of a face that keeps flickering in and out of reality, in the burned out husk of her old school building.

"Oh Maggie, you're so dumb sometimes, I could have handled that!" The face insists. "Listen, listen, stop crying, I can get you out of this." There's an orange glow that shifts with the face, a recognisable face, a face like hers. "If anyone asks what you are, or what you can do, tell them you're broken, or that you can be fixed. I need you to be smart and to survive, because I-" the voice gets choked up, taking in a rattling breath. "Please Maggie, please, don't worry about me, stop crying, plea- !"

Mags wakes up with a start, coughing up metal and crying her eyes out, though it seems Clancy is already awake. He presses her hand to her mouth so he and the bed doesn't get burned, and holds her close, murmuring that she's okay and that it was just a dream. His words soothe her mind, though she's so tired she can't properly see the glow of his eyes, but even as she falls asleep, it doesn't sit right in her chest.