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

14. Kelpie

"And now, the President's son, Clancy Grey, with a message of hope." The clean, smooth voice came from the radio, and Mags' whole body seemed to deflate from where she was bundled up in the front seat. "If I can be cured, you can be cured."

"Wunderkind, Clancy Grey." Chubbs mused with a smirk, looking to Mags and giving her a light shove on the shoulder.

"If I can be cured, you can be cured." Mags parrots, putting on the voice she used when recording the commercial the first time. Liam snorts and Ruby's eyes widened.

"So you guys had those stupid posters too?" Ruby asked, and Chubbs chuckled.

"Seven shades of bullshit," he agreed, turning to Mags, "Ain't that right, Little Miss Cured." He said, and Mags rolled her eyes sticking out her tongue, letting the others see the glow in the back of her throat. However, Ruby looked confused, and Mags bit her lip gently. "You don't know, do you?" It's with a snicker that Chubbs realises what's happening. "Mags is a bit of celebrity." He said, and Maggie flushed as Ruby's eyes widened.

"I'm Maggie Lyn, and if I can be cured, you can be cured." The woman plastered as fake smile on her face as she rattled off her old script, voice artificially bright and dripping with fake positivity. Ruby's eyes went even wider, if that were possible, and she pressed a hand to her mouth as she tried to muffle her laughter. After a beat, Mags' face split into a grin, and soon the whole car was laughing.

"You're Maggie Lyn? The Maggie Lyn?" Voice almost shocked, she looks incredulous as she takes in Mags smiling shyly in the front seat.

"You better believe it." Liam chimed in, and Chubbs quietly confirmed it. After a beat, Ruby threw her self back in the van, laughing with disbelief.

"You guys are so weird." She mused, and the others quickly followed suit, bursting into another round of laughter.

The journey to their stock up destination, a mall in the middle of nowhere, so it seemed, goes for almost seven hours. Maggie takes a nap for almost half of it, squirreling herself away in the back of the van, wrapping herself up beneath the quilt she had taken from one of the many hotels they had stopped at. At their lunch stop, she's barely awake enough to share a juicebox with Zu, and then falls right back to sleep, after having made room for the little girl to nap with her.

Chubbs reads by the light of the back window, and Ruby and Liam chat at the front of the van, quiet and serene, the hours feel like moments, golden and quiet as the afternoon simmers around them, and it doesn't take long until they arrive.

"So... why are we at the mall?" Ruby asked, expression dubious as she looked up at the slate grey outside of the building, surrounded by construction fences and plastered with Mags and Clancy's posters.

"We gotta get supplies somewhere." Chubbs offered, pulling a backpack from the back of Betty, holding the door open for Mags to help Zu climb out of the back. They trek forward together, Liam pulling the fences back to let them slip through, and when they get to the doors, Chubbs and Liam pose by the posters, mimicking Mags and Clancy's too-cheery expressions, and the girl herself shoves them lightly, grinning as she ducked inside. Glancing over her shoulder, she can see Ruby hiding a smile.

Zu is the one to light up the mall, fingers crackling with static she takes off her gloves and reaches down to a power socket. Electricity surges from within her to set the whole room aglow with fairy lights and warm overhead lights, and at the mere sight of once grey and dismal mall suddenly awash in a sea of rainbow lights, Mags feels her heart lift.

They play because they're kids, and goddamnit, they're allowed to be. They're allowed to have fun, and they'll take it at any chance they get, and when Zu manages to power up a little radio, pop music pours softly out of it and Mags and Zu put on a fashion show in the clothes department. Ruby, however, looks for something more practical, choosing a pink and grey hoodie over jeans, an outfit that fit her perfectly. When she caught sight of the girl, Mags stopped, a smile making its way onto her face as she approaches.