Discovery 1.2

They drove for longer than it would have taken to reach home. They drove outside the city limits, then outside the county. They stopped only once for gas, then kept driving well into the sunrise.

Her Mah, Irene, had asked Anna what happened, and she told them the truth. She had kissed a boy and he had fallen unconscious, seemingly lifeless before her on the dance floor. She told them of the surge of power she felt, the limitless energy and strange contact high coursing through her. She told them about all the stares from everyone around her, then about the two teachers who tried to corner her. She told them how she had somehow managed to throw both grown men to the ground and sprinted out the back door. Then about the screams of police sirens and her temporary sanctuary in the cemetery. They both took particular interest when she talked to them about all the intrusive thoughts she had been experiencing. As if she were sharing a mind with someone else. Afterward, the only conversation in the car was the hissing from the dying AC and the rumble of tires over potholes.

Anna tried prying, getting anything out of either of them, but for the first time - they didn't answer any of her questions. Only once in a great while would she hear them whispering in the front seat about how 'He already knew.' And that 'they would be watching.'

Finally, the car stopped at a flea-ridden motel in the middle of nowhere. The motel was a long strip, all its rooms facing a pockmarked parking lot with only a handful of cars between the faded yellow lines. The place looks like a relic from the early fifties and smelt like it too. Both of her mothers whispered something between them as they got out of the car, then her Mah took her hand and the other woman took off in the direction of what looked like the motel lobby on the far end. "Follow me, baby. We've got a room for you."

Anna wrenched her hand out of her mother's grasp. "No! You take my phone, take us miles away from home - and you won't even tell me why! What is going on Mah? Wh… What's happening to me?"

Her mother, wearing her own gloves, snatched Anna by the wrist. "All will be explained soon, hon. But not out here." Unfolding her white and red folding cane with a snap, she leads them both up the rickety flight of stairs, down the row of doors, and stopped at the very last door on the second story. She fished out a small silver key from her pocket and drove it in the deadbolt of the lime green door, twisting the heavy bolt out of place.

 "There is a chest of drawers inside with fresh clothes. Go ahead and shower and get changed." Her mother stepped out of the way, let go of Anna's hand, and gestured inside. "Raven and I have a couple of things to attend to, but we will be back soon. There is a rotary phone inside with our numbers on it if you need to call."

Anna stepped through the threshold of the door and her senses were immediately assaulted with the stench of wet wallpaper and starched linens. The room looked like any motel room she had seen before. Two queen-sized beds with nicely prepared yellow sheets to her right, a small CRT television with giant crooked rabbit ears for reception sat atop a wide table to her left, and to dress the walls was a thorough lathering of patternless green wallpaper. Anna turned around and found that her Mah had already closed the door behind her. There was a heavy 'thunk' as the deadbolt was secured back in place, and once again, she was plunged back into silence. Except for this time, she didn't even have her mothers for company.

She approached the front door and laid a hand on its chipped, white paint. Her eyes lingered on the dull silver door nob and the lock latch just above it. She could just open the door, follow her mother, and scream until she got some sort of answer… but what was the point? If she knew anything about Irene Adler, it was that she was even more bullheaded than she was. It was her other mother, Raven, that was the softer of the two. But she hadn't even gotten to exchange a word with her since everything began. She was normally so warm and full of life, but now - well it almost felt like she was avoiding her.

Anna's hand fell from the door. She turned, opened the chest of drawers just beyond the furthest of the two beds, and sure enough, found carbon copies of the clothes she had at home. They were even in the same spots she kept them in her own dresser in her room. It was enough to send a slight shiver up her spine.

She selected an outfit, shed her boots for the first time since getting ready for the dance, and walked through an open door opposite the front door. Before her was a fully equipped bathroom completed with a squat yellow toilet, a sink with no counter space, and a step-in shower containing every toiletry she used from home. From her conditioner to her liquid body soap to her preferred brand of washcloth. She laid her fresh clothes on the lip of the sink and picked up the bottle of shampoo. She turned to look at the towels on the drying rack, they were the same colors as the ones she had at home as well. A muscle deep in her stomach tightened. She couldn't help but feel like she was being watched, or in some sort of twisted prank show that somehow involved transplanting all your belongings in some other place to see what you'd do.

She looked up in the corners of the bathroom, scoping for any sort of camera. When she didn't find any, she closed and locked the bathroom door, and stripped off the tattered remains of her favorite top and skirt. She set the water on the shower to as hot as the tap would allow and the water pressure didn't disappoint. The soap stung her many cuts, but the water soothed her aching muscles. She soaked her hair, lathered it with her favorite shampoo, and gave it a thorough rinsing. By the time she was all done, she was practically feeling halfway to human again. She then dressed and threw open the door back into her motel room, a cloud of steam followed in her wake.

She picked the bed furthest from the front door and laid down on top of the sheets. Getting the pillows just right under her back and head, she cursed when she saw that the remote to the TV was resting next to it on the opposite side of the room. She tried to convince her legs to swing off the surprisingly springy mattress to retrieve it, but they wouldn't budge from their spot. Instead, she folded her hands over her abdomen and stared at the popcorn ceiling above. Her eyes followed the lazily spinning ceiling fan, her mind racing faster and faster still.

She thought of Jess, and what she would be thinking right about now. She wondered how many times her best friend would have tried calling her or texting… or if she had even tried at all. Was Cody, the guy she did… whatever she did too… was he ok? Last she saw he looked to be breathing but - it was all such a blur. And who was this 'he' and 'they' her mothers were trying so hard to talk about without her hearing in the car?

The answers didn't come to her as she dozed off and dreamt of being chased by an army of half-completed, half-melted clay monsters. Despite their slothing limbs and lack of eyes, they kept seeming to gain on her - 'til they eventually caught her and started ripping her skin off her body.

Anna woke with a shout, sweat staining her brow and the neckline of her shirt. She swung her legs off of the bed and they were more than happy this time to follow her command. She rubbed her face with the length of her hands and looked through the gaps of her fingers when her breathing began to steady. The sun outside was now casting a long light through the drawn curtain and onto the wall behind her. She spotted the nightstand between the beds and found a scrap of notebook paper with two phone numbers written in crisp handwriting pinned beneath a yellow rotary phone.

She picked up the phone and fiddled with the rotary till she got the hang of punching in the numbers, then dialed the first number. It rang only once before a clear: "Yes Anna?" Picked up, her Mah.

Anna clutched the winding wire with her free hand. "Mah - I was wondering where -"

"We are on our way back now, baby. We were just picking up some takeout."

'Takeout that takes hours to get?' Anna thought, then swallowed. "Okay. You'll be back soon?"

"Real soon."

"Um - could I - could I talk to Mom?"

There was a pause, a mutter, then a shuffling. "Yes, sweetheart?" The sweetly mellow voice of Raven spoke.

"Am I… sick? Is there something wrong with me?"

"No hon, you're not sick. I promise we will talk about it all when we get back."

Anna clutched the phone cable tight enough in her fist that the curled wire poked between her fingers. "O-Okay."

"Now just sit tight, we are on our way. Alright?"

"Alright."

"Okay, honey. Your Mah and me love you very much. Everything is going to be okay."

"I - I love you too." Anna then heard a snap and the phone went dead. She hung the phone back on its cradle and stared at it for a moment. She half considered trying to call Jess, but she didn't have her number memorized and only had it programmed in her phone. A phone she didn't have access to anymore. She eventually stood, walked over to the heavy moth-eaten drapes, and pulled them back enough to see outside. The sun was beginning to set over the greenery of the countryside. As far as Anna could tell, there was nothing but this motel and the adjoining gas station for miles. Suddenly unable to stand the canned air anymore she risked unbolting the door and stepped outside.

Her bare feet hit the concrete platform just outside, and the evening sun hit her face. The warmth felt nice despite the humidity from the previous night's storm, and in the neighboring trees, she could hear cicadas starting up their evening calls.

"Howdy."

The voice nearly made Anna launch off the side of the rusted guardrail. She turned and spotted a rather short-looking man dressed in a white tank top and a dark leather vest with a matching cowboy hat. He raised his hands. The black duffel bag dangled in the crook of his arm and gently smacked his flank when he rose his arms.

"Sorry! Sorry, didn't mean to scare you."

"Y-Yeah! Well, you did!"

His deep-set eyes crinkled into something resembling a grin and his tightly drawn mouth went cockeyed. "Sorry. Didn't mean to scare a neighbor." The man's voice was deep and layered in a thick coat of gristle, but there wasn't a trace of a southern accent.

"Neighbor?" Anna asked before she had a chance to think the word through.

"Yep." The man turned, pulled a key out of the front of his jeans pocket, and stuck it in the lock of the door next to her unit. "I'm staying for a couple of nights while I wait for my pal and his rig to meet me here. He's haulin' all the way from Michigan." He cranked the key, turned the handle, and let the door swing inward. "Wow." He said simply. "I've stayed in some roach bins but this is -" He whistled.

"Yeah, the place is a real head turner." She crossed her arms over her chest.

The man looked back at her. "The name is Logan. You're… not here by yourself are you?"

Anna drew her mouth to a line. "No, for your information I am not! My parents are on their way back right now, actually."

The man - Logan, nodded. The nod was strange somehow. His eyes lingered, not on her, but on the wall shared between their units. "Good." He paused. "Sorry, I didn't mean to imply anything. Just not safe for a girl like you to be traveling by herself, is all."

Anna said nothing. She instead tucked her chin to her chest and looked at the ground.

Logan rolled his shoulders, turned to walk through his open door, and paused in the doorway. "Hey, see that burnt sienna hatchback down there?" He nodded towards the parking lot. "That's my ride till my buddy shows up. If you see it around, know I'm around if you need anything. Alright?"

"Yeah okay, whatever."

Logan nodded, walked inside his unit, and shut the door behind him. Anna narrowed her eyes and shook her head. 'What a weirdo.' She thought, then walked up to the ledge. She rested her elbows on the pealing railing and glanced at the parking lot below. Sure enough, the only car down there was a beat-to-hell sienna-colored hatchback that looked like it had been plucked right out of the seventies. All straight lines and boxy looking right up until the hatch in the back that looked more like a gigantic dent than a curve in the body. Then, as if on cue, she saw her mother's old gray Toyota Corolla pull up and park just a space apart from the other car.