Age of Aquarius

Everglades National Park, 201X

60 °F

There was a conversation we needed to have, but not on the burning ground. I was given the barest assurance, just enough for me to follow them back to the motel.

Their room was stacked with lab equipment. The smell of chemicals mingling with the scent of bonfire on my hair was almost too much. June collapsed onto the bed about as fast as we’d gotten the door open. Micah, who I had most wanted to talk to, slinked away just as quickly to wash the blood and growth medium from his skin. I didn’t blame him.

Ezekiel clearly didn’t appreciate being left alone, though. It was the first time I’d ever seen him be visibly uncomfortable. The edge had eased off his posture. The jacket was hung up on the chair beside him, but he was dressed down to jeans and t-shirt. There was the same bone tiredness in his eyes, without the pointedness I’d come to associate with it. I didn’t like to see him so unguarded. I was fresh from the kill and I worried this might be his way of asking for mercy. That wasn’t something I wanted for either of us.

He asked me if I would follow him. I would, fine, but I went back to June first. The adrenaline had run out of her. She was struggling to stay awake, curled up like a cat on the king bed, twisting the dead flowers in her hands. I was very glad to see her alive and that I was alive to see her. I kissed her goodbye. She smelled like kerosene and melted sugar.

“Don’t try any shit, Z. I mean it,” she called out the door. He waved her off. I wasn’t scared of him, but I didn’t trust him, either. I didn’t feel the need to amend her warning. He walked me out, away from the glowing wet asphalt of the motel parking lot and across the empty street, into the reeds until you could barely hear cars passing anymore. Fireflies were floating above the tall grass.

He had his confessional . I was disarmed again, twice in one night. I ended up crying in front of him. I will probably cry if I write about it again now. I’m grateful, obviously. It just makes me really sad, because my friends are always good to me and they are always getting punished for it.

We were only gone for ten minutes. When we got back to the motel room, the door hung wide open, casting an eerie yellow light onto the pink balcony. We could see, all the way from the parking lot, that the room was empty.

I scraped my hands on the metal of the railing from climbing too fast. I could smell fresh blood and sure enough, the carpet had been sprayed with it. When Ezekiel caught up, he found me kneeling over the red marks, taking careful licks of them off my fingers.

“It’s not June’s,” I offered. A moment of consideration, “Not Micah’s, either.”

Ezekiel took a minute to look over the overturned shelves, the clear signs of struggle. They had left nothing behind, no calling card. We were both looking to each other for answers. I didn’t know what clown blood tasted like, but it seemed the likeliest explanation. We locked up the door and walked back to what had once been the fairground. As we re-entered the swampland, it started to pour.

There was a light shining above the dead ground. We saw it at a distance, then saw more joining it. I moved further into the treeline, concealed in the grass and brambles. The beacons were cutting through the scorched perimeter. I waited for my eyes to re-adjust to the darkness and in time I made out the men attached to the lights. I saw their vans, their dogs, their forensic equipment.

“Feds?” I whispered. Ezekiel shook his head, gestured to one of the vans. There was a symbol of a snake on the side of it. My blood was hot. I started to move forward, little tendrils curling out of my neck. Ezekiel’s hand tugged at my shirt.

“No.” Little lightning crackling along his temples, “You’re not ready. We need to get out of here.”

“These ones are human,” I pushed him off. There was a weight in my spine. He let go, but he’d already broken the trance. I felt mortal fatigue and I knew the tendrils would not move the way I wanted them to.

“They’re going to be looking for you. We need to leave. I can’t afford to get caught like this.”

“We’re missing people, though.” I said. My mouth tasted like cotton and dried blood.

“They only did it to get to you. Why are you trying to make their job easier? Let’s go.”