Boom
The forest stars. I always came back to them when I couldn't think on my own, when I was on autopilot. I now knew they were lightning bugs, but it was the child's innocence that kept me going.
And my mother kept that dream alive. She kept the stars alive as long as she could before I realized they were glowing little bugs.
It was when they would put me out into the field with my mom undercover and she would find ways to distract from the hell around us. She gave me the most normal childhood she could while being a part of what we went through.
But that autopilot has to become manual at some point. And then it all snaps back into reality. And every hell comes rushing back to the front of my mind.
“Ross called?” I asked when she stepped out of the bathroom. She looked at me and scoffed with a smile. I smiled and walked towards the door, my mom wrapping her arm around my shoulder.
We walked out onto the car deck, a gust of cold air hitting us. We walked out to see the large almost fake looking mountains of Norway. It was surreal, but a nice way to get away when the autopilot is gone for the time being.
“This would actually be nice if we weren’t on the run,” I said, glancing around at the view. My mom hummed in agreement as we made our way past the cars and to the edge.
She said nothing as she secretly slid the phone off the boat and into the water. She stood there for a second longer with me before walking away. I watched her for a moment before going back to look at the view.
It made me hopeful. And hopefully, in an alternate universe, I’d be here with a functional family. Not a care in the world but the stress of being a freshman with no strange powers. Or even with the powers, and never knowing about the disgusting things that I've used them for in this life.
Or one day, all of this would be over. And the lightning bugs are something I’ll be able to tell my children about. And I'll forget about the Red Room.
“One day...”
_______
“Hey, Эайка, wake up.” I opened my eyes with a yawn at my mothers words. “You slept through most of this, let's go.”
I groaned as I sat up, already feeling the pain in my neck from sleeping in the car. I looked over at her pulling out her gun and checking the magazine for bullets.
I tiredly pulled mine from the side compartment of the car seat and quietly stepped out of the car. I closed the door as slowly as possible and waited for my mother to cross in front of me.
I looked around the surroundings of the very small home. It was quiet, making everything a little more eerie. The only thing you could hear was crickets within the grass.
We picked up the pace when we started getting closer to the door. I then walked ahead of her and held the door knob, twisting it slowly, and waiting to throw it open.
She gave me a nod and I quickly opened it, staying behind the door as she walked in slowly. I glanced around quickly before following her in. I looked over to the small table at my right and surveyed the very small kitchen.
I stayed close to my mom as we approached the bedroom. Then she lowered her gun and walked into the room. I looked at her in confusion until I heard it. Snoring.
I scoffed and lowered my gun as well. Following my mom into the room. I rolled my eyes at the sleeping man in the only bed in the surrounding five miles.
I walked out and went over to the tiny table. I snickered when I heard him gasp awake.
“Did you get everything on my list?” I heard Rick to rustle out of the bed.
“Got passports, entry visas, a couple of local driver licenses. For both of you, and two or three permits just in case.” He said, grabbing them off the counter. “Mix and match, you should be able to stretch it to over 20 or so identities.”
I got up and made my way over to them to see the id’s that I would have to memorize.
“Fanny and Maurie Longbottom?” My step faltered for a second before I reached over to the card in her hand. She willingly gave them to me, and I couldn’t believe the names that were actually printed onto the pieces of plastic.
“You’re joking.” I said, looking up at Rick in disbelief.
“What?” He asked in confusion.
“What are you twelve?” She asked jokingly, turning around and looking through the rest of the documents.
“That is a legitimate name.” He said laughing. “We’ve got a generator outside. It’s petrol-powered. And the septic tank will need a flush in a couple of weeks, but, you know, I’ve got a guy coming for that.”
“Is that guy's name John Smith?” I asked him while continuing to stare at the names on the cards. I looked up to see him glaring at me, I gave him a smile and walked around the counter to look at more made up names.
“You’ll have to haul your rubbish into town. It’s just a 20-minute drive. I’ve got your basic hardware kit stashed under the stairs.”
“Nice.” I heard my mom say it simply. I glanced behind me towards her and watched as Rick’s face became concerned.
“You two okay?” I made eye contact with him for a moment before turning back around to the documents.
“Why wouldn’t we be?” I heard her ask and shuffle a little.
“I hear things. You know, something about the Avengers getting divorced.” I scoffed at the comparison. It was a bit of an understatement to say the least.
“Ugh. It’s fine. We’re actually better on our own.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Cause you can tell me you know. That's the way the whole friends thing works.” I chuckled to myself.
“I know. I have friends.”
“Well, she doesn’t. And people that have friends don't call me.” I whipped around and looked at him offendedly.
“And I don’t pay you to worry.” She said, crossing her arms.
“And I have friends, thank you very much.” I said under my breath, turning back and looking at the age birth date on one of the licenses.
“People that have supernatural abilities and say that, don’t have friends.” I turned and narrowed my eyes at him as he shrugged while walking towards the door.
I shook my head and walked to the bedroom, sitting on the bed and laying back onto it. It wasn’t very comfortable, but it would have to do. Better than sleeping on the floor.
“No, it’s Budapest.” My mom said with a ‘sh’ sound.
“Budapest.” Rick said, attempting to correct her.
“It’s Budapest!” I yelled out.
“Whatever!” I heard Rick yell back and then continue with his conversation.
__
The sun had started to set when we started to settle down. And we mutually decided on movie night. A few lost battles of rock-paper-scissors (with no mind reading of course) and we were watching Moonraker. Arguable the worst James Bond movie to be made but a movie nonetheless.
“Why did you break up the encounter with my pet python?” My mom said along with the movie.
“Because I discovered he had a crush on me.” I said, looking over at her smiling. She smiled back at me as she dipped her spoon back into the peanut butter.
Just when I turned back to the screen, a low rumble came from outside and the lights shut off. I looked around for a moment and groaned.
“Great. Stay here.” I paused the movie and watched for a moment as she got up to put on a pair of sweatpants and shoes.
I sighed and got up with her to check it out as well. It didn’t take long to realize Rick had set us up with a shitty generator that would probably need fuel every couple of hours.
“You can stay here if you want,” My mom asked, weighing the gas cans. “finish the movie.”
“No, it’s fine. I’ll go with you.”
So now, we were on a twenty minute drive to a tiny town. The music was set at a low number as we just sat there, driving through the mountains.
I rested my head against the window as we approached a nicely lit bridge.
“Are you gonna fall asleep when we’re almost there?” I hummed in agreement, closing my eyes and trying to get comfortable.
Just then I heard a loud bang and a flash of light.
___
Эайка. Bunny, in russian. An endearing term my mother started calling me one day. I never really knew why mothers called their children that. But it was nice.
Nikolina. My name. Similar to my biological fathers name. Nikoli. And homage to him apparently. Nikolina.
Nikolina.
“Nikolina!” I opened my eyes slowly. Just then, my head started to hurt. And I realized the car was teetering off the edge of the bridge. I looked to my mother and then behind her, on the bridge.
A person with a large suit of armor was walking towards us with a shield. I tried to click the seatbelt, only for it to be stuck. I moved the hair out of my face to get a better look at what was wrong with the buckle. Just then, the car jerked forward and a white box came flying past my head.
I held my breath as my mom started climbing to the back of the car, causing it to wobble.
“Can you get out?” She asked in a strained voice. I grunted as I tried to push the button again.
“Gimme a second.” I said, my voice came out hoarse. I hovered my hand over the buckle and tried to focus on using my powers to rip it out.
“I’m pretty sure Ross has no jurisdiction here.” I glanced up for a moment as the car wobbled a bit more. I focused on the buckle again and imagined the damn thing breaking.
I watched the area around the buckle swim in blue and pulled my arm back. The plastic broke off and the car jerked forward once again. Then gunshots sounded from above me.
I started climbing up when I saw the shield start flying toward my mother. I jumped when it got lodged in the window instead. She glanced back at me before climbing out. The car moved when she jumped out, losing the balance in weight.
I struggled to climb back up because of the wobbling car. Then the car started tipping back as I saw the armored guy jump down next to my mom. In a panic, I focused on any stable spot on the bridge. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes as the car tilted more.
I landed on the concrete on my knees with a wobble. I looked up and saw the car a few feet ahead of me. It was close to falling over. And my mother was fighting the suit of armor that seemed to copy her exact moves. Whoever it was, was very skilled in combat.
I carefully stood up on my wobbling feet, watching the two in front of me stare at each other. They flipped up and off their backs, and stared at each other a little longer. Then, the armored guy looked behind him. He stood up and started walking away from my mom.
I started walking towards them, realizing he wasn’t coming after us. I picked up my pace when I saw my mom reach for her boot knife and look back at me. I nodded and focused on a spot next to him right as my mom took off into a sprint towards him.
I appeared behind him and tried to aim the gun I managed to grab before teleporting out of the car. He turned around and reached for the gun. I lifted my knee into his abdomen, only to meet hard metal.
He twisted my arm around and kicked my gun away before my mother came and tried to slash at whatever part she could. He pushed me away with an amount of strength that shocked me. I rolled across the asphalt. I groaned as I tumbled over debris and into the fence.
My vision went dark for a second as I tried to catch the breath that was knocked out of me. I sat up and saw as the man was pulled up by a string, only to cut it and get a hold of it again.
I stood up and focused on the end of the string connected to the overhang. It started glowing blue when I tried forcing it to swing in the opposite direction. Instead, it stopped in the air before the blue dissipated, he was already dropping down and running over to my mother. I had, luckily, stalled enough time for her to run over and remove the contents from the box.
She grabbed onto the shield that was lodged into the car and started blocking the punches being thrown. I tried to get punches to do something but it was no use. Then, in one kick, he sent my mom flying off the edge.
Then I ran over to the edge and looked over as he looked into the box. I took that moment to jump off into the water.
It felt freezing cold the second I hit the water. I plunged deep into the water and let the fast current take me away from the bridge. I didn’t let myself come back up until I felt my lungs burning.
And when I did, I saw how far I had made it from the nicely lit bridge. I then started swimming towards the shoreline when I saw my mother come up from the surface.
We both reached shore at the same time. I collapsed on the gravel and let my body gasp for air and ache. The breeze made me shiver and my eyes shut.
“What?” I looked over at my mother as she looked at red vials. I looked at her in confusion and sat up to look at what was in her hand.
She was holding photo booth pictures of a little blonde girl and a little girl with blue hair, her roots growing in red. I looked at her in confusion and disbelief.
I had a weird feeling grow over me. Something didn’t feel right.