The Vigilante's Handbook (Misfits #1)

Thirty Four: I've Been Messing with You

I didn't sleep that night. The glow of my Gift would give me away to any enemies who cared to look for me in the dark. I couldn't risk being caught by surprise again. Even without the glow, they probably all knew where I was if Eleanor did. They just didn't need to know that I could use my measly gift.

I passed the night shivering and making false promises that when the sun rose I would have a plan. The sky was turning a yellow to blue gradient and I had no clue what I was going to do when it came up all the way.

The greater part of me wanted to stay in my makeshift bed until my Gift gave out and I froze like any normal human. Then there was the tiny part of me that wanted to storm into town and scream until I lost my voice. Mostly at the people I had considered my friends. I had a line up in my head: Julien, Mona, Lucia, Elliot, Miguel, Eleanor. Because I had trusted them and they didn't care.

But, despite what Mona said before she lit my grandma's house on fire, I'm not an idiot, and I had one sliver of rational thinking left. That sliver told me to find a way out of town and disappear. We had been taught how to do that in the Academy. It was as simple as finding a place that had never heard of me or the Queen of the Misfits. I would integrate myself into their community under a new name, just as I had done here in Summersville.

At that point the Academy would tell me to start with smaller crimes, earn a rep, start a new name.

But I was done with being a vigilante. It would make it too easy for my friends to find me. And I was useless without my team. As much as I loved vigilante life--and as much as it was all I knew how to do--I would have to stop.

The sun was warming my back where the roof was missing. Whatever birds that hadn't migrated south were chirping in the trees. It was a comforting familiar sound. It was time to make a decision. Freezing, screaming, leaving. Those had always been my options.

I unburied my face from my arms. The blue light hadn't stopped, but it was localized in my hands now. My chest must have frozen through. When I flexed my fingers, they still moved despite how cold they were. Overhead a large raven perched on the broken roof. It's feathers were mottled with shades of brown.

My frozen fingers dug up a handful of snow and pressed it into a ball. The bird burst into flight to dodge the snowball. It returned to its seat when the coast was clear. I contemplated throwing another at it, but the raven seemed persistent.

"Go away, Miguel."

The bird hopped away from the edge, disappearing from my view for thirty seconds. Then the fluffy haired visage of Miguel Castillo peeked over the edge of the destroyed roof, smiling.

"I have gotten better at recognizing you, now that I know what your Gift is. That first time just caught me off guard." I was working hard to keep the smile out of my voice because I knew what was coming next. "Did Eleanor send you to try and break me since she couldn't?"

Carefully he lowered his six something foot frame into the motorhome, swaying dangerously in the process. Eventually his feet found the snow covered floorboards and he was looking up at me.

"She was here earlier. Trying to apologize for Mona and Julien."

The smile had fallen off his face now as he got tangled in his lie.

"I wish you would have just told me from the beginning. Or not pretended to be my friend. Or not convinced me that our friendship was special."

He didn't respond. What was new? He was still going to try to play his full deck, anything to get me to forgive him and my other classmates for aligning themselves with Eleanor. Instead of using words, he reached out a hand to put on my arm.