She had a little electric thermometer in the corner of her room to check herself, since sometimes she was burning up and it was like 68 and then there were other days that she felt like she was freezing to death and it was like 73. And, invariably, if she tried to raise or lower the temperature based on how she was feeling, within about twenty minutes the truth would catch up, and it was often a mistake. So she tried to keep the thermometer at a solid 72 -- if she felt cold at that point she'd just pile on a blanket, and if she felt hot then she'd put on skimpier clothes. And, generally, she'd go back to feeling neutral before too long.
She felt like she was frozen clear through, which probably meant it was like mid-sixties since she was a complete wimp, and she cracked an eye open to look at the thermometer, but it was dead. She reached for her phone, and saw that it wasn't charging and also was no longer streaming Spotify. The power must be out, taking the WiFi with it.
Whatever.
That was future-Rain's problem.
She flicked her phone to low-power mode even though it was at 93% since she'd been charging it while watching TikTok before bed -- just to keep the power as conserved as possible. Then she burrowed under the blankets with a pissy huff, mummifying herself until there was just a single narrow channel directly in front of her nose to breathe out of, squeezing her eyes closed tightly and willing herself to stop shivering so she could go back to sleep.
It felt like she'd only just fallen asleep again -- although in reality I'd been near half an hour by now -- when there was a loud knock on her door. She sighed deeply. She lived alone. On purpose. She lived alone on purpose so that the only problems she'd have were her own. But no. Now problems were knocking on her door in the middle of the night.
The knock came again.
Rain sighed again and rolled out of bed, taking the blankets around her as she shoved her feet into her slippers and sulked to the door. She pulled the door open. Lia was shivering on her doorstep, teeth chattering. A gust of wind crashed into them, further chilling Rain's flat, and she huffed angrily and stepped back so Lia could shuffle in.
"I'm out of power too," Rain muttered, shutting the door behind her as she turned towards her baby sister.
Lia nodded vigorously, brow furrowed, but she looked miserable.
"You're welcome to stay," Rain said, starting back towards her bedroom. "Dunno if it's any warmer here though than it is there."
"Um..."
Rain sighed, turning back towards her tiredly. "Mom?"
Lia nodded. "She told me to come get you, and Dad told me not to, but, well..."
Rain nodded. "Alright. Is he too dumb to work the generator? Again?"
"Yeah..."
Rain walked back to her room, leaving the door open as she piled on all her outside clothes, grabbing a few instant hand warmers. She slid one in each glove and down her shirt, then tossed a few more at Lia and gestured for her to use them, too. She dumped more into her pocket and grabbed her battery-powered lantern, then walked outside.
It wasn't a far walk to their parents' house, and they made it in more or less silence, both absolutely miserable by how cold and dark and late it was. Rain sourly walked in first and down the stairs to the basement.
Her dad looked up, face twisting into a sneer as he saw her, then looked past her at where Lia was following her downstairs. "I told you not to get her."
"Good to see you, too," Rain said flatly, shouldering past him to get to the generator.
He grabbed at her arm, trying to yank her backward as he snarled, "I don't need you."
"You clearly do," she spat, ripping her hand free as she set the lantern on top of the generator and adjusted the choke, hoping he hadn't completely drowned the transmission yet. "Otherwise my mom and baby sister wouldn't be sitting in the cold right now. Or is it one of those days you're being incompetent for funsies?"
"I swear to god--"
"Better swear loud," she said obnoxiously loudly, yanking on the cord. "'Cause I don't think Cheva remembers us anymore. Maybe if you're a big enough of an attention-whore she'll come back and give us warmth."
"Rain..." her mom chided.
Rain looked up, just now noticing her standing in the corner. "Oh, hi, Mommy. I'm so very glad to see Daddy is keeping you safe and warm and not needing me whatsoever."
"Bitch," Dad muttered.
"Takes one to know one." Rain cranked the generator again, and this time it came spluttering on. She fiddled with the controls until she was satisfied it was running how it needed to be, then got it connected to the correct ports to warm their house and keep their fridge running, though she supposed that would be the least of their worries on a night this cold.
"Thank you, honey," Mom said, stepping forward to give her a hug.
"Of course." Rain offered a weak smile and a half-hearted hug, then gave her mom the rest of the handwarmers that she'd brought along. She started up the stairs again.
"Where are you going?" Mom called after her.
"Home."
"Rain!" she chided. "It's freezing cold -- below freezing! Isn't your power off, too?"
"Yep." Rain shoved her feet back in her boots and grabbed the heaviest coat that she'd left by the door.
"You don't have a generator!"
"Nope." Rain yanked the coat on, putting her hand on the door.
"Guess Rain will finally get as icy as her heart," Dad muttered, walking upstairs as well and going to open some of the vents to circulate the heat.
"I aim to please." Rain yanked the door open.
"Rain!" Mom chided again. "Don't go, please. Stay here where it's warm. This is madness."
"Meh." Rain turned away and started back towards her condo, ignoring her mom's pleas to come back. She'd rather be cold than spend another moment in the same house as that bastard. She'd already had dinner with them this week -- that had made her reach her limit of how much of her dad she could tolerate. She'd just pull another blanket out of her closet.
And, well, if she froze to death, at least she wouldn't have to grade the midterms.
She looked up as she saw a flash of motion, but couldn't quite tell what she was seeing in the darkness.
She could hear jingling, and what sounded like dogs panting. Pulling a sled over the inches of snow.
"Woah!"
It sounded like Lake, and suddenly a dog sled was slowing up beside Rain, with Lake driving it.
"Rain! Hey, I was looking for you. You weren't home. You okay?"
"I'm fine," Rain muttered. "Power's out -- had to go help get Lia and Mom warm 'cause Dad's too dumb to work the generator. Going home now... why are you out? It's middle of the night, yo."
"Actually it's the middle of the morning if you think about it. It's like, 4am or something," Lake countered.
"... I am too cold for this," Rain announced, deciding she wasn't in the mood for word games, and started walking again.
"Hey, let me give you a ride," Lake said. "You'll get home faster!"
Rain glanced at her. "Yeah, sure, whatever. Thanks." She stepped towards her, awkwardly getting on the sled as well. "You never answered why you're here, tho. You need help too?"
"Nah, my fam's got the fire going again," Lake said. "They'll keep the house warm. Can't do nothin' 'bout the internet though. Bummer. But yeah, uh--"
She paused, shouting "Hike!" to the dogs. They started pulling, and the sled moved forward. Rain tensed, finding her balance.
"So you know that book Fish lent me, it was actually pretty interesting," Lake started. "A lot of it I already knew but like, the map and everything was more detailed than I've ever seen. I think it's legit. And then I had like, this crazy intense dream and I think I had a spiritual awakening or something because I woke up with more sense of purpose than I have in like my whole life. Is that insane? It's a little insane. I know you're probably thinking that. But Rain, seriously, I've never had a dream that felt so terrifyingly real. It was about Cheva, and she needed my help."
She paused in her fast-paced explanation only for half a second.
"Well... our help," Lake said. "And it was more than just about her. It was about the whole town. All of us. Like the fate of everything was tied together. Cheva, Chevan. You, me. All of it."
Rain sighed. Was this a dream? It was sure a miserable one if so. And yet the characterization was too on the nose for that to be true. Her fighting with her dad. Mom enabling him. Lia getting caught in the middle. And now here was Lake with her rambles that it was entirely too early to be entertaining.
"Alright," Rain said tiredly. "And?"
"Fish has agreed to come," Lake said.
"What?" Rain snapped, jerking her head up. "Absolutely not. That's insane."
"We're going to go find Cheva, and I mean, I won't make you go, Rain, but I'm going whether you guys come or not," Lake said firmly. She seemed more convinced and resolute about this than Rain had ever seen her be about anything else.
"No one is going anywhere," Rain scoffed. Had she snuck a few of their beers? This was crazy-talk. "Except back to my place. And then we're gonna snuggle under the blankets and go back to sleep and you can dream of Cheva all you like."
"I'm really being serious, Rain," Lake said. "I'm going if you come along or not."
"Gee!" Lake shouted, and the dogs turned right in the snow-covered street.
"This is insane," Rain repeated.
"I knew you'd say that," Lake said with a sigh. "Still wanted to try though."
Rain sighed, seeing Lake's utter disappointment and feeling like a jerk. It was like she'd just kicked Lake's puppy, rather than called her on her sheer, objective, insanity. "Fine. We'll talk about it. In the morning."
"I mean, Fish still has to talk to his dad, so I was going to wait 'til morning anyway," Lake said. "And I need to get more dog food."
"Good," Rain said. Hopefully Fish would realize how dumb of an idea this was. Or, at least, hopefully Fish's dad would. And maybe Lake would realize it herself. But she wasn't going to hold her breath. They were both idealists.
"Woah!" Lake said, drawing the sled to a slow stop. The dogs wagged their tails when Lake hopped off, and she reached into her pocket, running over to them to give them pets and treats.
She said "good boy" and "good girl" to every dog with each pat.
Rain hopped down, still in a pissy mood. "Did Cheva say what she wanted with a bunch of burnt-out gifted kids?"
Lake laughed, still smothering a dog with love as she looked back to Rain.
"Maybe she's just lonely," Lake said with a smile.
"Maybe our dads should invite her to poker night," Rain dead-panned.
Lake's smile faded slowly, and she pulled away from the dogs, facing Rain with a more severe expression.
"I know you don't really care about her, or even believe in her much," Lake said slowly. "But I think... she's dying. I know that doesn't make much sense, but I don't know. It feels right. In my gut. And, I dunno... reading the book... I just had this weird feeling. Like I was meant to find it, and it was meant to find me."
Rain was silent for a moment, biting back the snarky part of her brain that wanted to ask if that made her Gollum and the book the Ring. Lake clearly truly believed the nonsense she was spitting, and Rain didn't want to crush her hopes and dreams. She'd save that for her students. And her dad.
"Maybe I am a little crazy," Lake said. "Or a lot crazy. But I've never felt more meant to do anything in my life. Maybe it's wrong to chase that kind of feeling, but it's more than that. Our town needs help, Rain, and I don't want to be the person that stays behind in a burning house without even trying to grab a bucket of water."
"I just don't see what it is you think we can do," Rain said, deciding to entertain this nonsense. "Let's say, we do find Cheva. She's alive. She's in danger or dying or whatever. What the hell are we supposed to do about it? I know nothing about nursing a sick goddess back to health."
"Maybe it'll be just like in the movies and we'll just know," Lake said with a shrug.
"... I'm going back to bed," Rain sighed. "But, like, wake me up before you go, or whatever, I guess." Her FOMO was entirely too strong to dip out on an adventure with her friends. Even though she was a skeptic through and through.
"Hey, it's only a weekend trip," Lake said with a smile. "My dad said I had to be back by Monday or he'd kill me. The last part was in parentheses."
"Oooh, I see, I see." Rain smirked. "Alright. Fine. Whatever. I guess I'm in."
Lake cheesed so big she thought her smile would take up her whole face. She looked like she was about to burst with happiness until she finally sprung up in the air, spinning around with her hands over her head.
"YES!" she laughed.
Rain laughed too, grinning at her. "Alright. But for now. Sleep sleep. Questing should be started well-rested, I feel like."
"That's a good wisdom," Lake said. "But make sure to pack more than a few lunches. Meet me at my house in the morning! I'll have the dogs ready."
"Yeah, yeah." Rain waved her away. "I'll be there."
Lake bounced again on her feet, doing a happy dance as she jumped back onto her sled.
"Go get warm!" she said, before shouting at the dogs again.
And, they were off.
Rain watched them go, then pulled her keys out and decided to get in her car to run her heater before she went back inside. And pack, she supposed, since she was going along with this nonsense. Cheva help us all.
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