And just like that it was settled. The two brothers went upstairs to their room to grab the video game console and its controllers, while Nellie, Yuève, and Max grabbed a seat on the couch. They voted on a co-op game once the system was all setup, a restaurant simulator called ‘Nightmare Diner’ where the players were required to fulfill countless meal orders while combating an onslaught of specters and vermin set on stealing food and other materials from the kitchen. They chose teams, but quickly remembered that the game only supported four controllers and one of them would have to sit out. 

“Yuè! Come on!” Tei cried, trying his hardest to reach for the controller in his sister's hands. “You're not even good at this game. Let me play with Nellie!” 

“No way! You play this all the time,” she countered. “Give it a rest, dude.”

But Tei refused to listen. He jumped onto the couch, pawing at the water musae's outstretched arm for the controller. Yuève pushed him away with her other arm, and this almost worked but then Tei grabbed her hair in a fist, as if this would bring him closer to the controller. “It's boring playing alone, I wanna play with the others for once!” 

He gave another yank. 

And all of the sudden there was a burst of crystal blue water as Tei flew across the couch and bounced off the opposite wall. “Ah!” Yuève cried, “Don't do that!” 

A hush fell over the room. Max and Raul spun on their sister, as Yuè processed what she'd done. Tei however, was seemingly unhurt. He jumped back onto his feet as if nothing had happened and crossed his arms, giving his sister the most begrudging glare. “That's not fair,” he huffed. 

Then the Sorairos noticed Nellie. 

She’d been sitting next to Yuève and was caught in the blast that had launched Tei across the room. She got up now, soaked from top to bottom for the second time that night. She wrung her hair, doing her best to keep her breathing under control, even as a remorseful Yuè ruptured into a series of apologies. Max was at her side too. They must have thought that Nellie was mad or annoyed with them and their powers, but no, she didn’t have it in her. At this point she just wanted the night to end. To leave Meteora and her dream of the Instruments behind.

“Here,” Yuève urged, “Let me see if I can pull the water off of you.”

But Nellie simply shrugged her off, despite the water musae’s pleading eyes. “No, it’s okay. A towel will do fine.”

Yuè bowed her head, retreating her arms close to herself, wishing that there was more she could do. Nellie wanted her to understand that it was okay, that she was used to her and her siblings messing around like this, but she knew that Yuève wouldn’t listen. So as Raul ran into the laundry room to grab her a towel, Nellie went over to the front door and picked up her bag.

“I think I’m going to go home,” she said.

“What?” protested an incredulous Max, “Nellie, why? It’s already so late!”

Because I want you to enjoy your powers. But she couldn’t say that. It hurt too much to verbalize the fact that she couldn’t take part in the inauguration of their Instruments. So instead she offered him a tender smile. “I can make the next bus if I hurry. It’ll give me time to think.”

“I’ll walk you to the stop,” Raul offered, handing her the towel.

She dried off and returned the rag to the laundry room, knowing that all of the Sorairos’ eyes were on her. She gave Tei a hug when she came back and took one last longing glance at her now supernatural group of friends. “I love you guys, okay? I’ll talk to you soon.”

Despite the grave look in their eyes, Max and Yuève returned the smile she gave them. With Raul at her side, Nellie made her way out of the farmhouse and towards the nearby street. The bus stop was further down the road, south of the hill where Arashi’s truck had crashed.

They walked in silence, with only the song of insects and other nocturnal creatures filling the space between them. The ocean was relentless too, the winds coming off its coast growing cold and bitter as the night darkened. And though she was used to his presence, having Raul beside her made her all the more uncomfortable. She wanted nothing more than to break the silence. To joke and tease one another like they’d had for so many years. But the only thing on her mind was the envy she felt for the Sorairos. 

Raul, Max, and Yuève were already special. Whether they wanted to be or not, the night they'd arrived at the observatory had made them that way. No one else in the world had ever teleported the way they had. How come they deserved meteors too? But there was no way that she could say that to Raul. He and his siblings had their share of trauma as well, and no matter how open the two of them were with one another, she knew this would be something she had to surpass herself. 

So they trudged on towards the stop, with nothing said between them, their thoughts scouring over the night she’d had. Nellie couldn’t stop thinking about the Sorairos, about Yuève in particular. The incident at the house hadn’t bothered her that much. It sucked getting soaked, sure, and they had all been plenty scared for Tei, but she’d known that’s what the Instruments were: nature’s raw power, limitless and unrestrained. 

No. 

Instead her mind kept going back to that moment she and Yuè had shared on the hill, rerunning it on an endless loop. She didn’t understand. They’d been standing right next to one another when the meteor came, literally side by side. Nellie remembered turning towards the blazing sapphire light, she could’ve sworn that Yuève had fled behind her, and yet… She saw it over and over again. She felt it over and over again. That had been her chance. The light meteor later on would’ve never hit her, she was born on an island, and found peace near the beach; she had always been meant to be a water musae. So why had it gone to Yuè? How had she been under the heart of the storm, how had she had three friends struck and still had all those meteors evade her? By the Stars she had even saved someone’s life! Why in the world had the favor not been repaid? Would it have been better if she were alone? She wouldn’t have wanted that for anything in the world earlier, but now, no, she couldn’t think about that. Her eyes were already beginning to sting at the idea and there had been far too many tears that night.

Nellie scoffed, As if telling myself that will stop them from coming.

“I think I see the bus up ahead,” Raul announced, noticing that Nellie had kept walking. She couldn’t have said when they’d arrived at the stop, but the familiar sight of a long metal bench with a glass canopy overhead and a crooked post not too far away revealed that they were indeed at the spot where she had said her goodbyes so many times growing up. And Raul was right too, down the road she could just make out a pair of headlights piercing through the veil of night. 

“Right on time,” she murmured.

 “Yeah.” Raul turned to face her, and continued. “Nellie, listen. There’s something I’ve been meaning to ask you.”

She met his gaze, happy to have something to tear her away from her thoughts, but was instantly caught off guard by his musae form. She’d have to remember that he would always look like this now, shocked with lightning.

“After the theater clean up tomorrow,” he said, “Would you want to catch a movie at the drive-in? They’re playing Better Oblivion.”

“Oh.” She hadn’t been expecting this. In that moment, she quickly realized that she hadn’t given much thought to anything after Meteora. She’d pictured herself with the Instruments and had imagined the millions of things she’d be able to do with one of the powers, but as far as her everyday life went? The fact that she had to finish school, find a career, and live a whole life after that hadn’t crossed her mind. 

Raul was swaying on the balls of his feet, waiting for a response. When the moment passed, and she still hadn’t answered him, he took her hand in his and Nellie’s stomach twisted in protest. Despite his Instrument, his touch was still soft and familiar, he was still her Raul. But she hated how pampered she’d been that night. She knew the Sorairos understood her pain, but still, she wished that they’d act as if nothing had happened.  

“How would we drive in? I doubt Arashi will have the truck fixed by then.”

Raul blinked in surprise at that, letting go of her as a pinkish glow appeared beneath his copper complexion. “You know, that hadn’t occurred to me.”

The bus was nearly on them now, its engine a low monotonous hum, decreasing in volume as the shuttle rolled to a stop. The doors opened with an airy hiss and the lights flickered on to life inside as Nellie found Raul’s piercing saffron eyes again.

“I’ll go,” she nodded. “And thanks again for all your help today. I don’t think I would’ve made it out of the canal without you.”

“Sweet,” he grinned hastily, her gratitude unacknowledged by his intentions. “I’ll, uh, get the truck situation figured out.” Then he hesitated, as if waiting for something more, but Nellie had already turned from him and climbed aboard. 

The automaton attached to the steering system closed the doors behind her as she paid her fare and the engine kicked back to life. It was quiet on the bus. Nellie figured anyone traveling this late must either be coming from or going to work. Her stomach churned at the thought. She didn’t see any musae either as she made for the back where she had trained herself to find a seat against the left window and watch the Sorairo’s home pass by. Of course not. Why would there be? If she had any of those powers, she sure as stars wouldn’t have spent her first night with them riding a bus.

  And so, as she took her seat, Nellie tried to wrap her head around the idea that this was what the rest of her life had in store for her. A mundane existence in a small town, working an unfulfilling job just to make ends meet and treat herself to material things that would quote-on-quote, ‘help her keep going.’

It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Not after she’d lost her mother and been doomed to grow up in a broken home. She was supposed to get better.

 Damn it. Her face fell into her hands, tears falling to the floor unwillingly. 

Damn it, damn it, damn it.