Liquid Silver

Eighteen

Only the light from Liam's bedroom window suggested that anyone was home.

Jem figured his dad was stuck in late doing surgeries, and his mom must have been on another business trip. Which meant he was probably upstairs freaking out just as much as Hayden was.

Liam had already texted her to say the door was unlocked. As she stepped inside Brett hesitated.

"Are you sure-" He hadn't followed her in. Jem knew what he was thinking. Liam would be less than over the moon to see him, and he probably felt pretty invasive showing up at his house. But she knew they needed all the help they could get. Besides if they wanted Hayden to calm down, she was sure Satomi's peaceful mantras might be a little more inspiring than Liam's semi-reliable headphones method.

"Come on" Jem took his hand to lead him in the door. "She needs our help"

Truthfully Jem wasn't sure how much they could help. She didn't know Hayden all that well, only that her sister worked in the department and they used to be in middle school together. They'd never been friends as such. They didn't hate each other or anything drastic like that, they just hadn't crossed paths all that much, so there was no reason for them to be close.

That wasn't the issue though. Every chimera they'd found so far was dead. The doctors came after all of them, calling them failed experiments. So was Hayden another failed experiment? Or would they have a worse problem at hand if she was the success?

She tried to push all those ideas out of her mind as she pushed open the door to Liam's bedroom. They were both sitting on the bed, Hayden picking her finger nails and not meeting anyone's eyes. She was pale and Jem felt a surge of pity for how terrified the girl must have been.

"Jem you're here-" Liam's greeting was cut off when the door opened enough for Brett to be revealed standing behind her. "With company..." he sounded less than enthusiastic.

Brett didn't respond, instead standing stiffly behind her probably trying to think of a good reason to leave. "I think there's bigger issues Liam" Jem responded bluntly, not in the mood to deal with the toxic testosterone overdose flying between them. "How's she feeling?"

Jem would have asked Hayden herself, but she hadn't looked up since they arrived, instead her eyes trained to the floor and her knees tucked up under her chin. Liam stood up off the bed to walk over to them instead, lowering his voice.

"I don't know what to tell her" He admitted softly. "I tried to show her, didn't go too well" Jem wanted to scold him. The supernatural world wasn't something you could just flash in front of someone and expect them to be fine with it.

"At least she's not shifting" Brett pointed out, looking over Jem's head at the other girl, still static. Jem left the two boys, walking slowly over towards Hayden. As she sat down beside her, the mattress shifting against her weight Hayden flinched.

"Hayden" Jem's voice was as soft as she could make it. "It's Jem, your sister works with my dad"

"I know who you are" Her voice was sharp which surprised Jem.

"Right... Look, we want to help you, but you need to calm down a little first" Jem tried to be accommodating. There was no easy way to go about this. And it seemed ridiculous to ask someone to calm down after they'd seen what she'd seen. "You're not alone"

Jem moved her hand slowly to Hayden's shoulder, trying to comfort the girl but as her fingers brushed Hayden's skin she moved so quickly Jem couldn't even react. Hayden's fingers curled tightly around her wrist, pulling her arm down and bending it awkwardly.

Brett and Liam had both already made a move towards her, equally concerned, but she managed to hold up her other hand. "Wait" she managed to order them. It wasn't going to help her if they surprised her, or tried to restrain her. She wouldn't take well to force, so Jem tried talking again.