Young Writers Society

Kat

After a couple more minutes of comforting, Alura was in fresh clothes and her face was cleaned up. I led her gently back to the tent.

"Is Nick still gone?' I asked Desmond when we cam back.

"Yeah," he sighed, putting a blanket over Alura's shoulders.

"They'll be okay," I reassured myself. "They've probably got Daemyn and they're on their way back as we speak."

"Kat, I want to tell you something," he whispered, leading me away.

"Uh, sure. What is it?"

"I-"

"Hey guys! Where's Viper?" I heard Fee ask behind me.

I turned and saw her holding hands with Mikael. I gaped.

"He and Nick went to go get Daemyn," I stared pointedly at their hands.

**FEE**

My mouth dropped open. "He did not!" I yell, ignoring (though appreciating) the slight squeeze Mikael gives my hand. I rub a hand over my eyes. I should have expected this. It's the real world, not me and Mikaels happy-smiley-lovey world. "Viper should NOT be anywhere but here, sipping hot cocoa and cuddling with a fire. NOT out in the woods, freezing to death and very possibly being captured by Kili. He can't defend himself when he can barely talk! I need Nick, dammit!" I rant, my voice gaining volume as I talk. This is not how I want the circus to be. We've never had it this bad before. Sure, we've had some run-ins with the government and we even lost a few members over the years, but we've never been split up and fighting (to this extent, at least) and unable to keep all the performers safe and healthy. I sigh, knowing I have to stay here and keep everyone together. "OK," I shout, standing on our only picnic table. "I want everyone into the girls tent. NOW." I get down and wait till everyone but me and Mikael are in the tent. "It'll be ok," I tell him, probably reassuring myself more than him.

I think I'm getting a migraine.

Viper

"D-d-daemyn! D-d-d-d-d..." I shook my head as another fit of uncontrollable shuddering hit.

Pathetic.

I spun around. My heard leapt in my chest when I saw who it was. Zanette? But it wasn't Zanette's voice.

"They g-g-got to y-y-y..." I gave up trying to talk to her; I was stuttering far too badly.

"Hi, scale-face. Miss me?" My eyes narrowed as I saw the knife in her hand. What has she done to you? Zanette was one of the sweetest people I knew. She was as close to incorruptible as they got.

"Za-" I began. She raised the knife; I froze.

She seemed hesitant at first. She's still in there. She's fighting it.

Suddenly there was a movement beside me. I jerked in surprise just as Zanette threw the knife. There was a shout of pain.

Nick was beside me on the ground, the knife in his foot.

I turned back to Zanette, who was backtracking. "I-I'll be b-back," I told her, turning to Nick. I pulled his arm over my shoulders. "C-can you get us t-to th-th-th..." I shook my head in frustration. "G-get us back?"

Nick,

I cry out as I collapse. My foot is in so much pain, I can barely think. Viper is trying to support me, but he is shaking so badly that he has a hard time standing.

"C-can you get us t-to th-th-th..." He shakes his head, "G-get us back?"

I hardly hear him, but I understand what he means. I try to think of camp, of Kat's reassuring smile, of being there with my family...But the pain is overwhelming; my concentration breaks. I try to clear my head. TELEPORT! I scream inside of me, again and again. But we don't go anywhere. One of my screams becomes vocal, and someone is suddenly running at us, knife raised. Through the haze of pain, I see Kili. I grit my teeth. Viper will not die! I open my eyes. Kili is no longer there. We are lying between the tents, in camp. I could cry with relief. Instead, I shout.

"Get Viper inside, someone! We can't have him almost freezing to death again!"

The last things I see before blacking out are Kat, Des, and Markus running towards us.

**FEE**

I hear shouts from outside, so I run from the girls tent to see what's happening. There is Viper, shivering in fetus position, and Nick, blood soaking his pant leg. "Nick!" I gasp, running to him. "Oh, no," I mutter, inspecting the damage to his foot. I look over to see him laying on his back, arm thrown over his face. His hands are in fists. I touch his pant leg and gasp as my skin turns to a deep red blood. I look at my hands. They where bare, but how long had they been bare? I hadn't even noticed I wasn't wearing my gloves because...because I hadn't been changing. I try to swallow past the growing lump of worry in my throat, but find I can't. I try to change back, an action that had before been done easily, I can't do it. I close my eyes, focusing on changing my skin back to it's normal fleshy self, but I still can't do it. I open my eyes to meet Mikaels. I'm a bloody mess of a girlfriend. If I so much as touched him he would be soaked with blood. I drop my eyes, feeling like crying, and jump when I see my arms are back to their natural paleness.

"Great," I mutter. "First the Circus falls apart and now I can't control my powers."

Mikael

"Fee your fine. Come on its probably just stress, your under a lot of pressure." I tried to comfort her. Maybe there was a connection between our phantom power mess ups. Like the pain i had felt when i was worried about her. I had felt pain. Enough, i mentally scolded myself. Right now there were lives to save.
I began stripping off my jacket and tshirt and wrapped them around Viper.
"Go and grab something thick and warm and put it on him, now." The others quickly sloped off and the girls began rummaging through there stuff.
"Fee," she didn't move a muscle, seemingly concentrating on turning her skin back to normal. "Fee, the first aid kit. Please." Her skin turned back to normal.
"Nick listen to me buddy your going to be fine ok? Here if it hurts squeeze my hand." I gave him my hand and began cleaning the wound.

Kili,

I hear a scream from nearby. I immediately jump up and run towards the sound. I nearly run into Zanette on the edge of a clearing. She is watching Viper, who is lying over Nick. A knife protrudes from Nick's leg. I grin and start moving towards them. With any luck, I'll soon have two new followers. Nick, curse him, sees me coming. I screws up his face, and more slowly than usual, he and Viper disappear. I stare at the spot. Then, I scream.

**FEE**

"Fee, the first aid kit. Please." Mikael said, already taking care of Viper and Nick at once. 'Snap out of it!' I mentally yell at myself, running to get the first aid kit from my pickup. I run back to Mikael, my skin the same light blue plastic as the kit's box 'Don't think about it. Do not think about your powers,' I will myself, sitting down next to Nick. With an odd feeling in the pit of my stomach, I notice Viper is gone. "Here," I say, laying out the equipment on a small towel. I stare in wonder as Mikael professionally cleans and stitches up Nick's foot, practically with one hand. I've seen him "work his magic" before, but it never fails to amaze me. I mean, a guy who feels no pain and is basically a doctor. After he gets Nick wrapped up, I help him to the girl's tent, where everyone else is. I help Nick sit down next to Viper, Kat, and Des. I run back out to Mikael only to find him gone. I look around, flabbergasted. Where'd he go?

Kat

"Nick, what happened> Who did it?" I asked anxiously.

"Zanette," he murmured, his arm still covering his face as it drained of all color.

"What?!" Des and I cried at the same time.

Nick nodded. "Kili got to her for sure," he whispered.

"I can't believe any of this stuff. It's... unreal," I said.

"I-It's t-t-t-true," Viper stammered.

"Kat, I still have to tell you something," Des whispered anxiously in my ear.

"Go ahead, I'm listening."

**Happy Halloween everynoe! BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!**

Des~~

"Remind me in a minute."

I moved over to Fee and started helping her with first aid. Blood had never really bothered me and my quick hands generally made me able to do surgery quickly.

After a while we had done all we could do, and I stepped outside. Kat came out with me and leaned against my side.

"What did you want to say?"

"I just... If something happens I want you to know that I like you... a lot, like more than a friend. I don't want to force you into anything because I know Nick likes you a lot, I just wanted you to know."

Viper

It's difficult to remember what happened next. We made it back to camp, and people were running this way and that, shouting. Someone put something cloth over me. I clung to it for dear life, soaking in the meager heat it provided.

Someone else murmured words of encouragement at me as they half-carried, half-dragged me to a tent. They promptly deposited me in front of the fire and began wrapping me in blankets.

I lay there curled up like a fetus for a bit, trying to pull my wits back together. When I finally looked up, there was a good number of people gathered around. Kat was asking Nick about what had happened.

"Zanette."

"What?!"

"Kili got her for sure."

My eyes squeezed shut, almost of their own accord. I didn't want to deal with reality just yet. I was still too weak. Poor Zanette. She'd never done anything to anyone. If I once got my hands on Kili...

Kat's voice intruded upon my thoughts. "I can't believe any of this stuff. It's... unreal."

"I-It's t-t-t-true," I said, not even attempting to sit up. It was amazing how much energy it took to force out even those two words.

The conversation died out there. I cracked my eyes open again and watched the fire dance, hoping and wondering about Zanette and Daemyn. Would they be alright?

I couldn't stand it. I tried feebly to get up. "S-s-s-s..." I made a face when I realized how snake-like I sounded. "S-somebody's g-got to h-h-help Z-z-z-z-z..."

Kat

I threw my arms around his neck. "I like you too, but what would we say to Nick? I'd feel awful hurting his feelings after he just had a knife pulled from his foot."

"So would I," he murmured, holding me tightly.

"I want to be in a relationship, though. I just don't want it to hurt somebody's feelings," I sighed.

"I know what you mean," Des said comfortingly, taking my hand and smiling sadly.

"Maybe we should wait a little while, like when Nick is better," I told him. He nodded. I reached up and kissed him lightly.

"Hey guys, we need to figure-" Fee said, stopping automatically when she saw us.

"Uh, right," I said, breaking off from Des. "We need to figure out what to do about the ones Kili has under control."

I walked back into the tent, but before going in, I whispered to Fee, "Please don't tell people yet, Fee." She looked at me and nodded.

Zephyra

She's in my head, gripping my brain, and she won't let go.
I can still see Nick's face, screwed up in pain as the knife tore into him.
Carmel slapped my face, telling me that I was just unable to do anything, not even stab a freak. I didn't listen too much, too numb, too thankful that my jaw didn't break when she slapped me.
Kili wanted to see me. I don't want to go, no, she'll take over, dammit. I do want to go; if I can please her, I can feel less empty, less pain. Pleasing her is a good thing.
She's sitting at her own fire, poking it with a twig.
"So, Zanette, I saw what happened," she murmurs. I close my eyes; I know I did wrong, and she'll-
Making Kili happy is the only thing that matters. Nothing else. Nothing else. I need to kill the snake-freak, need to kill them all, all except the leader, Fee, no, bring her to Kili.
"You can run, but you can't hide," I whisper to the trees.

Nick,

My vision begins to blur as I watch everyone hurrying around me, whispering. I here several names. Zanette, Kili, Des. My eyelids begin to droop, but I try to force them back up. Kili could get to me if I pass out. The pain isn't so great anymore, and I can think a little more clearly. I clear my throat, but it's such a small sound, nobody hears me.

"Someone needs to stand guard, so that Kili can't sneak up on us all," I whisper. Fee hears me.

"He's right," she says, "We can't let ourselves be taken by surprise." Mikael volunteers, and as he exits the tent, I get a brief glimpse of Des and Kat holding hands and walking away. My hands clench. And then I get and idea. Hypothetically, if I could teleport the necessary components of a working foot to my wound, and messed around with them when they were there, could I heal it? I close my eyes, thinking of blood, skin, and bone. I imagine how they interact, perfectly balanced, in a complex system. I see my wound in my head, a bloody gaping hole. I imagine new blood cell from my bone marrow, streaming out and replacing the lost ones. I know a scab has already formed. I open my eyes. The wound is covered in a scab that should have taken several days to form. New skin has not grown, but that's okay. I look up at everyone in the tent, who are now staring at my foot. I smile. I love my power.

did you steal it from my foot?