Mollie

Sarah and I work together to break down the girls tent. I pull all of the sleeping bags out of the inside and roll them up one by one, as she makes her way round the tent, pulling up the stakes.

I'm zipping up the last bag when I am interrupted by a scream. Sarah's, of course. I get to my feet as quickly as I can and race around the tent to find her. Emerald is right behind me and the boys are behind her.

She is standing over the dead body of the vampire I killed earlier. I immediately relax.

"Wh--wha..." she stammers breathlessly, still staring at the vampire.

"I killed it," I try to explain in my useless voice.

"Mollie killed him earlier," Emerald says carefully and Sarah finally turns around. Her eyes are wild with what I can only guess is fear. She looks at me with fear.

I am speechless, and not just because I can't be heard. She looks... scared of me...?

"Come on, let's get back to work," Colt grumbles, seemingly unimpressed by the false alarm. Everyone disperses except Emerald. She places a hand on Sarah's shoulder.

Sarah and I make eye contact, her expression still slightly twisted, mine smooth with calm.

"Sh--she killed him?" Sarah's voice is barely a whisper. She continues to stare at me but is talking to Emerald like I'm deaf as well as mute. She does that a lot and I pisses me off. After a moment Emerald looks at me too, apparently unable to think of something to say in my defence.

"I had to," I mouth clearly, emotionless, staring at the two of them.

"That's right," Emerald agrees, staring at me a moment longer before turning Sarah's body so they face each other. "It was very brave of Mollie. She helped protect Karl."

Sarah nods, pushing her lips together and glances at me again. Her eyes are shiny like she was about to cry and I have to turn around to hide my eye roll. Sarah's a softy and Emerald too. Yup, I killed a monster that wanted to kill my boy--erm, I mean--Karl. Just like Emerald should have killed the one that tied up Colt, like I said, too soft.

I finished with the sleeping bags and by that time Sarah had recovered enough to help me with the tent. She still looked at me funny though--I couldn't quite understand what she was thinking, but whatever it was, I'm sure I wouldn't like it.

We rolled up the tent into it's bag at the same time the boys had finished theirs and we gathered the last of our possessions, putting them in our backpacks.

"You okay?" Karl asks me, as I'm zipping my bag shut. Why does he look so worried?

"Just dandy," I reply and swing the bag over my shoulders.

"Seriously, it was pretty rough out there..." he says, and I can hear the hesitation in his tone.

"Is this about the dead vampire?" I ask flatly.

"What if I said 'yes'?"

"I'm seriously fine, are you alright? He got your arm pretty bad," I let worry slip onto my face as I remember the haunting scream of pain Karl let out when the vampire had him in his grip.

"Jasper says it will be fine, I just need to keep it in this sling," Karl shrugs nonchalantly but winces.

"Since when is Jasper a doctor?" I raise my eyebrows.

"Alright! Is everyone ready?" Emerald calls everyone's attention and begins to lead us out of the clearing.

"He's not a doctor," Karl goes on continuing our conversation like we were never disrupted, as we start walking out of camp. "His mom was though so he has some base knowledge."

"Like setting a dislocated shoulder? That doesn't exactly sound like basic first aid," I'm unimpressed, "I think you should see a real doctor."

"Sure, I'm bet there are loads of woodland doctors, we'll have the pick of the litter!" he says sarcastically.

I grit my teeth at him. I walk ahead of him and ask Emerald "where are we going?"

"Yeah, I wanna know too," Karl says, following me.

"What?" Emerald turns around annoyed. Karl doesn't realize other people can't hear my voice and that he's the only one who understands me. It can get annoying at times like this when he doesn't have enough sense to translate for me. We've tried to explain in the past but I think he's too stupid to get it.

"Where are we going?" Karl repeats, also annoyed.

"South," Emerald replies and takes out a map. I recognize it as Colt's, he got it from his old Drove. It shows the territories of all the other supernatural beings around the world. Like werewolves, Pixies, mermaids, vampires even other magical people like us. We get the short end of the magic stick if you ask me though; everyone else is practically immortal but magical people only have longevity that lands us with 50 or less extra years. Then again most other supernatural afflictions are more similar to curses that are inflicted, opposed to being born with it like us.

"Why?" Karl asks, running the risk of sounding annoying.

"Vampire territory ends around Massachusetts, so that's where we're going."

"Oooo, I've always wanted to go to Boston!" Sarah jumps in enthusiastically .

"Boston? That would take at least a month of walking!" I say, for a second forgetting they can't hear me.

"Woah that long?" Karl looks at me surprised.  

"Boston is a long way from Aroostook county, Maine," I sigh.

"How long?" Sarah asks looking at Karl, only glancing at me for a second.

"At least a month, Mollie said. God, don't you ever listen?" Karl has an edge to his voice.

"Listen? She's mute, Karl!" Sarah rolls her eyes dismissively at him.

"She is not! How else would I be able to hear her then?" he challenges.

"Alright you two, break it up," Emerald steps between them. "Mollie is right, it's going to take a very long time, but we've got no other choice. With Colt's wings there's no way we can travel on main roads so it's going to be tricky."

"Yeah to say the least," I scoff. Running from vampires on foot is a bad idea to say the least, but Emerald is right about one thing: Colt's wings are too big to hide from the public. I feel bad for Colt, sometimes more bad than I do for myself. At least I can buy myself a soda from a convenient store or walk down the street without being stared at or people taking pictures... or worse. Sure Jasper is barraged by bird drama, Karl's weather powers are a little too intellectual for him to understand, and Emerald's suffered through some hot summers, but that's all on the inside. Colt can fly, but at a huge cost. Something the rest of us could only dream of.

Where is Colt anyway? I wonder to myself and glance around our small group. Jasper is missing too. They're probably off making out or something. They think they can hide it--from us and themselves--but it's obvious they have the hots for each other. Karl thinks it's priceless that the half-bird fell for the bird whisperer, but I understand the appeal of someone who understands you like no one else can.

"Mollie," I jump in surprise as Colt appears next to me, Jasper on my other side. "How are you doing?"

Why do people keep asking me this? "Fine," I nod, "and you?" I incline my head towards him, talking with my body as much as my soundless voice.

"Wha--me? Yeah fine. Why?" he is surprised I asked. Jasper and I exchange a confused look. "Oh about being tied up and stuff..." Colt catches on, "Yeah that was nothing." He's trying too hard to sound casual, maybe because Jasper's around.

I get an idea. "Karl!" I shout in a voice only he can hear. He turns around and I continue "ask Jasper to go over and talk to you. I need to get Colt alone." It's weird talking about people right next to you but they can't understand me anyway...

"Hey Jasper, can you come here a minute?" Karl says nonchalantly, and Jasper agrees and jogs a head to catch up.

I turn to Colt expectantly. "What?" he asks defensively.

I raise my eyebrows at him, "you know 'what'," I wordlessly say.

"I told you, I'm fine," I don't believe him. I scan him up and down, maybe his head hurts--he wouldn't keep that from Jasper, plus he could get meds for that. Maybe he has rope burn, but his arms were covered by his jacket...

"Your wings," I mouth to him and he presses his lips together. Bingo. I reach a hand out to touch his back where his wings are folded neatly but he flinches away.

"It's just a little rope burn, some torn feathers. It's nothing really," he insists a little too forcefully.

"Can you fly?" I ask.

"What?"

I forgot again. I mimic flying with my hands on either side of me.

"No I can't fly," he sighs and looks away from me. I hate when people do that, I need them to see me for me to talk to them so looking away is like putting me on hold until they want to talk to me again. Whatever, I'm done here anyway. I jog ahead of him and catch up with Jasper and Karl who are making uncomfortable small talk, Jasper looking very confused.

"You can have your boyfriend back," I tell Jasper, skipping up beside Karl. I walk side by side with him, our shoulders close together, the backs of our hands brush against each other and I glance up at him. He doesn't seem to notice, still facing forward, probably trying to understand the meteorology in his head. I take it upon myself to interlace our fingers and he smiles at this but still doesn't look at me.