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

7. Cockatrice

For a time, a long time actually, they were happy. It was an unfocused happiness, a generalised happiness because they had nowhere to ground it, no solidified hope to attach it to. They travelled from town to town, following whispers of a safe haven for children, collecting trinkets that they kept in the back of Betty, and managing to get Zu at least two meals per day. They survived, and at that point in time, it was enough.

Mags had found sunglasses in the mall, a little too big, perhaps fashionable back when people cared about fashion, and she dyed her hair and kept it long, and found hairbands so she and Zu would wear their hair in matching braids during the day. Zu adored Mags, but Mags had never used her powers in front of her since the day of their escape, but she knows sometimes that Zu still thinks of it. When the young girl wakes up in a panic some mornings, just after Mags comes in from watching the sunrise, there's still a lingering fear in her eyes, like a knife-twist in Mags' gut.

"Do I scare you?" Mags had asked once, the boys had gone off to do something, perhaps to talk to some kids that they didn't necessarily trust to be around Zu, so the girls had stayed behind. "Because of the escape, the fire, do I scare you?" They were sitting across from one another, Mags was diligently stitching together a new dress for Zu's doll, with a sewing kit they had found in a hotel. Putting down the doll, Zu analysed it carefully, before looking up at Mags. Standing with purpose, Zu directs Mags to sit in the passenger seat of the van, before taking the older girl's sunglasses, climbing into her lap and winding down the window so they could both look in the mirror.

Side by side, with Mags' dark hair and fuller features thanks to a semi-consistent eating schedule, they look almost like sisters, though Mags' nose is wider, and Zu's eyes are a bit thinner. Mags' red eyes are the most striking difference, and she can see Zu looked at them in the reflection. Pressing her cheek to Mags', Zu gives her a fond smile.

"So, no?" Mags asked, relief written all over her face; Zu's grin widens and she shakes her head.

"There's my girls!" A call from outside catches both girl's attentions, and looking over, they see Liam beaming at them, and Chubbs waving a bunch of bananas in both greeting and victory. It was sappy, but Mags thought should could feel her heart glow as she watched them approach.

"Are you girls stealing my seat?" Chubbs asked, mock offended, leaning against the open window as Liam went around to the other side to start the vehicle. Mags went to play innocent, but Chubbs just grinned, passing her a banana. "It's okay, it's time for Zu's math lesson, so you win this round." Zu scrambled into the back and opened the door for Chubbs as the engine revved to life.

"God, I haven't had fruit for so long." Mags groaned, unpeeling the banana, looking at it like it was made of solid gold. Liam laughed as she devoured it in only three bites, but paused for a moment, expression suddenly growing thoughtful as he considered what she had said.

"We need to eat better." He mused, and Mags rolled her eyes, before watching the road in front of them.

"We don't have much of a choice." Her tone was flippant, but there was something a little darker under the surface; Liam rested his right hand on her thigh in solidarity. The smile Mags gives him is a little sad, putting her glasses back on and taking his hand in hers. They drive like that for a long time, on the open highway with the sun gently fading beyond the horizon to the right. There's a specific shade of orange in the sunset, it's there in the sunrise too but she doesn't really notice it then, that makes her stomach churn, and her free hand begins twitching so violently she has to sit on it to suppress it. Liam's noticed it a few times, it only happens when they're driving and she can see the setting sun, but it's there, the shade makes her anxious and she can't put her finger on why.

They're on the trail of a supposed safe haven some months later when they find themselves in what once was a busy little town in middle-America. The community buildings are all red brick, all the houses sit in neat little picket-fenced rows, but there's no-one around. The grass is all dried up, the scene feels haunted.

"I know this place." Mags' voice was quiet as she leaned in between the two front seats, eyes wide and confused. Liam pulls over, wants to say something, but doesn't know what. Mags is the only one to get out of the car, to roam the streets, someone had been here recently but they weren't anymore, maybe skip-tracers, maybe other kids on the run. After turning the corner and continuing down a street that felt all too familiar, she hears someone following behind her, but it's only Liam. They both continue to the end of the street where a collapsed building sits, the charred remains of a school if what the sign in front of it says is to be believed. "I know this place." Mags repeats as they stand at the edge of the school's gate.

"Something terrible happened here." Liam looks up at the building, seeing a dried blood stain on the wall, but still follows Mags as she heads inside. The two of them walk through the halls, looking at the eerie reminder of a society that has long passed. This school was destroyed before it was shut down, childrens' drawings still litter the walls. When they get to where the cafeteria once was, they both stop. A few charred skeletons are scattered about on the floor, and there's two holes in the floor, each just larger than one of Mags' open hands, a dark tunnel that seemed to extend forever, lined with cool, perfectly smooth rock. Some of the skeletons had this cool rock sticking to their faces and hands where they had tried to protect themselves. The ceiling was caved in here, all the walls blackened with scorch marks. Falling to her knees, Mags can touch each of the holes in the floor at the same time without much effort. Eyes falling closed, all she can see is people advancing on her, one has a taser, and they're moving past her. Someone's beside her, calling her name and begging her to stay calm, but they hit him. He's fading in and out of her memory, calling her Maggie as the room fills with fire around them, fire and-

"Mags!" Liam shouts and pulls her back, because actual lava had begun to bubble from the holes in the ground, almost burning her fingers. Jumping back, the lava quickly drains away, and Mags laces her fingers with Liam's. "What- what was that?" He asked, eyes nervous and a bit scared. Mags felt disconnected from herself, allowing him to lead her from the building and back to the van.

"Something terrible happened here." After a pause she mused, "and I think I had a brother." Liam's hand reflexively clenches around hers, but she doesn't sound particularly affected by the news. "Not anymore." Her voice is quiet and he stops, which in turn makes her stop.

"Are you okay?" He asks, but she doesn't answer, doesn't move. He walks to face her, hands still linked, and she looked vacantly at the horizon. When he comes into her field of vision, she gives him a vacant smile, stepping forward and up onto her tiptoes to press a kiss to the corner of his mouth.

"I'm okay." She assured him, thawing out from her shock. The memory is fuzzy as it is, and apart from the physical destruction, it's not like anyone can prove it was her, or that she was even here. She wants to leave this place, leave it and never return.

They drive past her old house on the way out of the city, she doesn't realise, or rather, if she did, she wouldn't care.