Mara had been gone for several hours and the evening sun had cast long shadows across the barnyard when Anna received a text from Fiona. Her friends were on their way. Anna texted back that she would meet them at Potter Road in fifteen minutes tops.
Anna wrapped her backpack around her shoulder and headed out on her battlecruiser of a bike. Pedaling was easy now, especially after three months of training and antigravity boots on her side. Her tires hummed across the hot asphalt as she made her way down the back roads. There was no one in sight. No cars. Only cows, irrigation lines, and farmhouses set far back from the road. She still wasn’t used to this much empty space, but she was getting used to the different rhythms and constant hum of katydids and crickets.
She passed through pockets of warm and cool air that formed near irrigation lines and swatted at swarms of gnats that popped up in clouds along the road. She passed through the outskirts of town and avoided the large trucks that rumbled down the main roads. Within fifteen minutes she was at the turnoff to Potter Road. She looked up at the road sign to make sure. Surprise. It was filled with small buckshot holes but still readable. She had arrived.
Anna looked down the single-lane road. Waist-high weeds with purple and white flowers lined both sides, and evening bugs danced like little flecks of dust in the waning sun. The day’s heat had dried any leftover puddles from the earlier rain. Less than a quarter mile away, Anna saw her three friends by the roadside, their figures blurred by the waves of heat that rose from the broken asphalt.
By the time Anna met up with her friends, they were already off their bikes and exploring the area. Anna made a satisfying skid to a stop and let her bike fall with the others along the roadside.
“Find anything yet?” Anna asked.
“I think these are Katie’s skid marks from last night. They look pretty fresh,” Scout said, squatting next to two dark tire tracks. “My skid marks would have looked a little different if I had seen that bug-eyed thing, if you know what I mean.”
Fiona and Lula were on opposite sides of the road. Lula was walking in the open field, while Fiona wandered toward a patch of woods to the left. They were sweeping their hands back and forth through the weed patches and waist-high grass and looking intently at the ground for any traces of the creature. Anna walked to the end of the tire tracks and knelt down. She could feel the heat rise from the asphalt.
“So if Katie stopped here, then that shadowy thing was standing over there, right?” Anna pointed to a spot twenty feet down the road. “And facing in your direction, Lula.”
Lula lifted her head up and made her way over to the side of the road. “I haven’t found anything except a couple of broken beer bottles and a dirty sock. No footprints. Nothin’.”
“I haven’t found anything either. Except maybe the missing match to the sock you found, Lula,” Fiona shouted back. She was looking at the ground as she walked, then suddenly stopped. “Wait!”
Anna stood up from her crouched position. “What is it? You find something?”
Fiona bent down and disappeared into the deep grass, the top of her head the only thing visible.
“Yeah. This is weird. Come see,” Fiona shouted back, her voice muffled.
Anna, Lula, and Scout jogged across the road and into the tall grass. Fireflies rose like tiny missiles all around them, only to flicker out and disappear as they walked past. They reached Fiona, who was still crouched down.
“What do you think?” Fiona looked up.
The ground was sandy and the topsoil dry, even though there had been recent summer rains. If the light had been hitting any differently, Anna wouldn’t have noticed the two faint bean-shaped impressions in the dirt, twenty inches apart. On closer inspection, she realized it was part of the same print.
“A footprint maybe? But that’d be an awfully big foot,” Fiona said. “Maybe some anthill or something.”
“I don’t know. Lula weighs less than a loaf of bread, and look, even she makes a deeper impression in the dirt,” Scout said.
Anna walked away from her friends and toward the woods, swaying her arms back and forth to clear a view through the grass. Fifteen feet away, she found another footprint in the very same shape.
“Hey! I found another one. I think they came from that direction.” Anna pointed to a path that disappeared into the shadows of the trees. “Let’s see how far the trail leads us.”
The four made their way to a barbed-wire fence that carved a jagged line separating the woods from the road. Many of the rotted wooden posts had toppled over, and long stretches of the fence were covered in deep brambles. The wire was rusted but the barbs were still sharp. Fiona reached over and carefully pulled the top two lines of wire apart so her friends could pass. Anna hunched over and was ready to squeeze through when she noticed a piece of torn black fabric hanging from one of the metal barbs. The shape was uniform and looked like a small black feather, but there were no wrinkles or discolorations, just a jet-black surface that looked like a hole in space.
“What the heck is that?” Anna leaned in closer. Even inches away, the small feather seemed to absorb all light. “That’s trippy.”
“Hold on. Let me try my phone.” Lula turned on her phone light and shone it directly on the feather’s surface. “That’s crazy. It looks like a hole in the air. Go ahead, Scout, touch it. I dare you.”
“No, you touch it.” Scout took a step back.
Anna knew instinctively that the black object wasn’t from this world. She looked over at Lula and Scout, who were playfully pushing each other closer to the fence. They had no idea what was at stake here, and she wanted desperately to tell her friends what she knew. But she couldn’t. Not yet.
“I’ll touch it, you big cowards,” Anna laughed.
She set her backpack on the ground, pulled out a small plastic bag, then withdrew a pair of utility tweezers from a Swiss Army knife. She grabbed ahold of the feather’s edge and twisted it free from the hooked barb. The material felt spongy but firm, and even up close there was no perceptible sign of light. If anything, it was the absence of light. She held it up and looked at it from different angles, then put it in the plastic bag and sealed it shut before shoving it into her backpack.
She squeezed through the gap in the fence that Fiona had forced free. Lula and Scout quickly followed. The four friends walked single file down a small dirt path that led to the edge of the woods and then disappeared into a haze of dark shadows and thick bramble.
“Watch for ticks,” Scout said. “You go first, Fiona.”
Anna followed the dirt path into the woods. It was noticeably darker, but enough light still made it through the thick branches that she could see the path, her feet, and several steps ahead. They had walked for thirty feet when Anna stopped. A premonition. She felt like she was being watched.
“Why are you stopping?” Scout said. “I don’t see anything.”
“Me neither.” Lula stood close to Fiona’s side. “But I feel something.”
Suddenly, a small dim green light flickered in front of them. A blossom of light on the end of a plant.
“Ha. You guys are funny. It’s just fireflies,” Scout said.
“Wait.” Anna held her hands up and leaned closer to the green light. “That isn’t a firefly.”
Up close, the leaf looked like it had been painted with a brushstroke of fluorescent green paint. The light slowly grew brighter as Anna moved closer, like someone raising the dimmer on a light switch. Then a blue light flickered right next to it, then another. Lights began popping to life in a row—some on rocks or fallen limbs, some on leaves, until a line of green and blue glowing lights stretched ten feet in front of them along the path. The lights pulsed. Several flickered and changed color. Anna reached her hand out and the light grew brighter in response, making her giggle. The forest floor glowed in a magical light. A fairy ring.
“Anybody filming this?” Fiona said, her face alight in the green glow. “It’s beautiful.”
“So beautiful.” Lula shook her head in disbelief as she filmed the glowing lights in front of her. “Can you feel that?”
Lula was right, Anna thought. But it wasn’t a physical sensation. It was more of an emotion, a sense of calm and quiet. The closer she came to the lights, the greater the sense of calm.
The four stood mesmerized and silent for what seemed like minutes—even Scout. Each connected to the other, each swaying in rhythm to the pulsing lights. A small, nearly imperceptible movement. Anna could almost sense what the others were feeling. No need for words.
Then, from a distance, the sound of a car stereo broke the reverie, its thumping music growing slowly louder. It must be a passing car, Anna thought. She looked over at Scout, his mouth still open. The glowing lights from the forest floor reflected off his glasses. Then the passing car honked its horn, Scout blinked, and the reflection of lights in his glasses suddenly dimmed to darkness. The lights faded and left them in the dark shadows of the heavy woods. The four friends shook their heads in unison as if awaking from a nap.
“Scout, get out here!” a faint voice shouted from the roadside. The stereo was still blaring.
Scout closed his eyes and groaned.
“You gotta be kidding me.”
“Scout! Don’t make me come get you.” The faint voice sounded more agitated.
Anna headed to the edge of the woods and peered out between the hanging branches. A pickup truck filled with a half dozen high school boys was idling in the middle of the road. One of the boys was dragging her friends’ bikes and lining them up in a neat row in front of the truck. Anna pulled back and hid in the shadows.
“Who is that?” Anna whispered.
“That’s my sociopath brother, Tyler,” Scout whispered back as he nervously rubbed his thighs. He seemed smaller than usual.
“I know it’s you, Scout. I saw your stupid little bike,” Tyler shouted out. He wore an old sweatshirt with its sleeves torn off and a faded, stained ball cap turned backward. A bush of longish brown hair poked out on the sides, and his skin seemed too tight on his muscular frame.
“What’s he doing?” Anna asked in a hushed voice.
“Well, knowing him, he’s getting ready to run over our bikes,” Scout whispered.
“Your brother wouldn’t actually do that, would he?” Anna asked.
“Oh yes he would,” Lula said. “That boy is crazy.”
“Oh no he won’t,” Fiona said loudly as she ran out into the clearing. “Hey, Tyler! You better not be touching my bike.”
Fiona swung her arms in wide arcs as she stomped forward. Her anger acted like a force that dragged her friends behind her, through the barbed wire fence and out into the clearing.
“What did you say, Fiona?” Tyler stepped forward. He bobbed his head back and forth in an attempt to be menacing, but it made him look like a strutting rooster.
“I said you better not be touching my bike or you’re going to be hearing from my brothers!” Fiona kept barreling forward.
The threat stopped Tyler in his tracks, which made Anna wonder just how scary Fiona’s brothers must be.
“Just like my wuss little brother to be hiding behind his girlfriends,” Tyler shouted.
Tyler’s friends snickered on cue. The kid on the driver’s side opened the rusted pickup door. A .22-caliber rifle lay across his lap. An empty beer can rolled out slowly and clanked off the asphalt. Scout ran forward and grabbed Fiona’s arm to stop her. She looked over her shoulder, startled. Scout smiled back.
“Thanks, Fiona, but I got this,” Scout said. He stepped out onto the road to cut his brother off. “Hey Tyler, how about being a prince and giving us a break today?”
“What are you doing out here anyway, you little turd?” Tyler looked down at his brother. He fake-punched the air in front of his brother’s face, but Scout didn’t flinch. He must have had practice.
“We’re just leaving, Tyler. Just leaving,” Scout said as he edged his way toward the front of the truck, but Tyler cut him off before he could reach the bikes.
“I know why you’re here. You think you’re gonna find that thing Katie saw last night.” Tyler stepped forward, his face inches away from Scout’s. “Well, forget it. It’s mine.”
Scout paused. He looked down at his feet and shoved his hands in his pockets. He was trying to keep it together, Anna could tell. But something was going on under that expression. The muscles in his jaw were popping as he ground his teeth. His lips twitched back and forth. His eyes grew wider as he slowly raised his gaze to meet Tyler’s. A look of frustration and pent-up anger. Then the dam broke.
“Yours? Yours?! I didn’t realize you were so hard up, Tyler.” Scout stood on the balls of his feet. “Ever think of dating someone from your own species?”
The response was immediate. Tyler popped Scout hard in the chest with his open palms, knocking him to the ground. Scout lay there for a moment, stunned. He rubbed his chest, trying to get oxygen back in his lungs. His eyes began to brim with tears, partly from pain and partly from humiliation. Two of Tyler’s friends jumped from the back of the pickup truck and stood behind Scout to block him from running away; one had sleepy eyes and a cigarette hanging from his open mouth and the other one, with thin blond hair, looked nervously toward Fiona. There must be history there, Anna thought.
“Hey, Hanson. My brothers aren’t going to like this,” Fiona shouted at the nervous kid.
“Butt out of this, Fiona,” Tyler shouted back.
Scout suddenly realized he was trapped. Backed into a corner, Scout’s posture changed. He pulled his shoulders back and puffed out his chest. He even smirked back at his brother as if realizing he had nothing left to lose. Anna’s stomach was in knots. Scout looked so small. She couldn’t tell if this was a real threat or an ugly sibling rivalry, but she looked down at her iCom and engaged the defense mode just in case.
“I have an idea. Why don’t you and your primate friends go groom each other and let us go back to what we were doing?” Scout spit out.
The words seemed to float in the hot evening sun, long enough for everyone to take them in and shake their heads in disbelief. Scout was fearless but doomed. He was the yipping dog that had to get the last bark in.
“You don’t tell me what to do. You don’t ever tell me what to do.” Tyler grabbed the back of Scout’s hair and yanked hard.
“Ow, ow, ow!” Scout cried out. He tried pulling free, but his brother’s grip was too tight.
“Hey, Billy. Give me your cigarette.” Tyler looked over at his sleepy-eyed friend. “Let’s see if a cigarette can burn twice. Hold his arms.”
Billy took one last drag before handing the still-burning cigarette to Tyler and then pinned Scout’s arms to his side. Tyler pulled up his brother’s shirt to reveal his stomach, a row of skinny ribs, and two small circular scars on his left side.
Lula desperately motioned for Fiona to call her brothers.
“Hey, Tyler, come on. You’re not serious,” the mousy one called Hanson said nervously.
Tyler shot him a look that froze Hanson in his tracks. His eyes were rimmed red.
“Stop!” Anna screamed loud enough to get Tyler’s attention—as well as everyone else’s within a half-mile distance.
Tyler turned his head and tried a half smile, but it came across as a sneer. “You’re the new girl. Not half bad, but you got a big mouth.”
The way he looked at Anna made her skin crawl. She pumped her fist twice.
“Let him go.” Anna took several steps forward.
“Or what?”
“Or I call the cops. I don’t care if you’re Scout’s brother, but I’m pretty sure assault is still illegal.” Anna kept walking until she was within striking distance.
“It’s not illegal if it’s an accident.” Tyler lowered the cigarette closer to Scout’s exposed stomach.
Tears worked their way down his little brother’s face. Scout was openly sobbing now, and his glasses sat crooked on his head.
That was enough. Anna leaped forward faster than anyone expected—faster than anyone could even see. She knocked the cigarette from Tyler’s hand and placed her fist within an inch of his chest. She paused just long enough to register the look of surprise on Tyler’s face and pumped her fist one more time. Anna instantly felt a satisfying recoil in her hand.
The blast of compressed air knocked Tyler off his feet and threw him back against the side of the pickup truck. He slumped to the ground in a daze and moaned, strands of Scout’s hair still in his grasp. Scout was no longer crying. He was too confused to cry as he absently rubbed the back of his head. Everyone looked confused. Tyler’s friends were unsure if he had tripped or if he was just playing. The thought that Anna was capable of knocking him off his feet didn’t even register. None of them had a clear view, and everything had happened so fast. Billy and Hanson leaned over and started to laugh, thinking their friend must just be playing.
Anna didn’t wait. She shoved Scout toward their bikes and waved for her friends to follow. Fiona and Lula kept their distance as they circled to the front of the truck. Scout was the first on his bike. His handlebars wobbled as he pumped his legs furiously. Fiona and Lula were right behind. Anna stood up on her pedals, pushed down hard, and within seconds she had caught up with her friends. She looked back over her shoulder to see if they were being followed, but no one seemed to notice they were gone. They were too focused on Tyler, who was now up on one knee and shaking his head. No lasting damage. That’s good. He looked up and made eye contact, his face a combination of rage and fear and disbelief, but he didn’t make any attempt to stop them from leaving. Also good.
Anna turned away. The safety of the main road, where traffic and people and witnesses would be, was less than a half mile ahead. No one said a word as they pedaled as fast as they could; no one looked back until they turned the corner and made their way to town.