{1.12 | There's a Mummy on Main Street | part 1}
A long sigh left Elara's lips as she rolled up the sleeves of her flannel. "I can't believe this is how I'm spending my weekend."
The blond wolf sat in the passenger seat of Alaric's van. Apparently, a parasite had survived and infected Alaric, and it made him grab the urn and toss it into the river, leaving it vulnerable to being taken by whatever monster wanted it. Since it was outside the walls of the school, Alaric insisted that it had to be found.
And he forced Elara to join. She figured it was to keep an eye on her, considering he was-- as Josie put it-- absolutely terrified of her.
"Trust me, you're not the only one unhappy with this," Lizzie said from the row behind her.
Elara rolled her eyes. "I'm sorry, I don't think I asked for your opinion."
"Apology accepted."
"'Apology accepted,'" Elara mocked, tweaking her voice in an attempt to sound like Lizzie.
"You know, I liked you better when you weren't Hope's sidekick."
Elara scoffed. "And I liked you better when you weren't acting like a major b--"
"Quit it," Alaric cut in from the driver seat. "Both of you."
Elara huffed and leaned back in her seat.
She was still angry, of course. It didn't matter that days had passed since the parasite incidents, Josie and Alaric had betrayed her. Alaric's actions didn't surprise her. She knew the headmaster was cautious of her, but Josie's came out of nowhere.
"I'm pretty sure one of my old foster parents had an ancient van like this."
Alaric looked offended. "It's retro."
"It's a gas-guzzling atrocity on wheels," Lizzie added, her tone monotonous.
Hope popped up from the floor, sitting in between the twins in the middle row of the van. Elara had almost sat there, expecting Hope to sit in the front, but the tri-brid volunteered to sit between them. "I brought snacks."
She pulled out a pack of peanut butter crackers and handed it to Elara before handing the bag to Dorian and Emma, who sat in the very back of the van.
Lizzie side-eyed the tri-brid, a scowl on her face. "Oh, sweet. Did you pack them before or after you decided to FOMO your way onto our trip?"
"Like I'm gonna let you guys chase monsters without me?"
"I would've thought you wanted to spend the break canoodling with you hipster boyfriend. Oh wait, you'd rather canoodle with the broody werewolf in the front seat."
Elara didn't respond, instead focusing on the plastic packaging that did not want to open. The topic of Landon and Hope's relationship had apparently become a taboo conversation between the roommates. Both of them knew that Hope's slug-drunk behaviors were all too real and that neither of them truly meant what they said, but neither of them knew how to broach the subject without revealing too much.
Hope scoffed. "Sorry for wanting to protect the outside world from my mistakes. You know, there's currently an urn on a river cruise spreading plagues across America because I thought a unicorn was cute."
"It's called accountability," she continued, eyeing Lizzie challengingly. "Maybe there's a bracelet for it."
Lizzie glared. "Or maybe you just wanted to ruin yet another Saltzman spring break."
"When have I ever ruined a spring break?"
From the front, Alaric cut in again. "Girls? We're gonna be in this classic automobile for six hours, all right? So, no bickering."
"Probably would go by faster than car schooling," Elara grumbled, finally opening her crackers.
Hope and Lizzie continued bickering, but Elara wasn't listening.
Her mind was elsewhere, thinking about the past few days. She and Hope had practically been attached at the hip, and each night, Elara slept soundly as Hope slept next to her. Her plan to push Hope towards Landon had worked. At first.
But it was quickly starting to backfire.
"I am who I am," Lizzie declared, shrugging. "Right, Josie?" Her sister didn't respond. "Josie?"
The twin in question finally noticed she was being talked to, pulling out the earbud from her ear. "Sorry?"
"Josie, you cannot leave me with just them for company."
Josie looked at her wide eyed. "Well, I get carsick if I don't listen to music." She shoved the earbud back into her ear and looked out the window.
"Josie!" Lizzie tried to yank it out, but Josie smacked her hand. A slap-fight broke out in the middle row between the three girls.
Alaric yelled at them again. "Girls! Girls! There's no reason to be tense or awkward, okay? Now knock if off."
With her tongue in her cheek, Elara exhaled harshly through her nose. She had plenty of things to respond to that, and Alaric knew it, glancing at her in the passenger seat.
"We're gonna get through this together." He looked back towards the road. "God help us all."
"Road trip," Elara rejoiced sarcastically. She popped a cracker into her mouth.
Yeah, they were going to need all the help they could get to make it out of there in one piece.
~-~-~
When they finally, finally made it to Maple Hollows, Elara clambered out of the car as quickly as she could and would've kissed the ground if she weren't in public. The rest of the ride was awful. Josie puked three times, everyone was bored, and Elara had a cramp for half of it. They even got lost at one point.
The only decent part was learning of the relationship between Dorian and Emma. Any drama that wasn't hers was interesting, to say the least.
While Dorian investigated a bend in the river, the rest of them looked around the town for any monster sightings. Elara could've been useful finding the urn if she could track it like she could before, but the tug between her and the object was too dimmed. She couldn't explain why it worked sometimes and didn't others.
Plus, she couldn't swim, so she couldn't actually help that much.
She walked behind the headmaster and counselor down the sidewalk, hands in her jean pockets. It was Alaric who insisted she join the adults in their search, and Elara, honestly, would've rather dealt with the twins.
At least then she'd have Hope.
"So, Elara, you ever been to Maple Hollows?" Alaric asked.
"I don't know, Dr. Saltzman," Elara quipped. "Did Josie ever mention a Maple Hollows when she reported to you?"
Alaric sighed. "Can we not do this right now?"
"I don't see why not. It's not like you didn't bring me here to keep an eye on me. May as well get some actual answers in the meantime."
"We're in the middle of something."
"Fine, fine." She paused, taking a second to look around at their surroundings. "Then, we could talk about this...awkwardness going on." Elara gestured between Emma and Alaric.
Alaric was quick to reply. "We're not awkward."
"Not awkward at all," Emma said.
"No one's awkward."
"Yeah, clearly," Elara muttered, turning her head to the side. The ring of danger sounded in her head. It was faint, like the sound came from underwater.
The adults stopped walking, noticing Elara stopped behind them. Emma and Alaric shared a concerned look.
"What are you doing?" Alaric demanded. "We're supposed to be keeping a low profile."
"I am. Just give me a second--"
The ringing in her ears cut her off. It grew loud, piercing, almost. She grimaced in pain.
Alaric's annoyance washed away into concern, noticing Elara's eyes flicker a bright yellow.
"Problem," Elara said, turning around to face the source.
The ringing faded back into the buzzing, and Elara finally recognized the sound as beating wings of an insect. Then, a swarm of hornets appeared, flying straight for them.
"I see it," Alaric said, his voice tight with panic. "Run. Run!"
And they did. They took off down the street, Elara keeping close behind them. They turned around the corner of the building and spotted the van.
Alaric yanked the key fob from his pocket and clicked the unlock button. As quickly as they could, they clambered into the vehicle, and Alaric slammed the door behind them.
"That definitely seems plague-y," Elara commented, and Emma agreed breathlessly.
Alaric leaned forward in his seat, bringing his face closer to the window. "These hornets, they're indigenous to Africa, or Southwest Asia. I mean, they shouldn't even be on this continent."
Elara shook her head. "You've got to get a hobby."
"Oh," Emma groaned, "what are they doing here?"
Alaric chuckled. "Oh, you guys, it's so obvious, you're gonna kick yourselves."
"I can't do this. I simply can't. I can't do it," Emma whimpered. "Creepy crawlies. I hate them."
Elara's brows furrowed as she watched the hornets suddenly disappear from the windows. Their carcasses scattered across the ground as if their lives had simply been plucked away.
Elara glanced past Emma, and a man in a hazmat suit suddenly appeared, banging on the window. Emma screamed. The man, calmly, gestured for them to exit the vehicle and pointed down the street. Groups of people were being escorted towards a line of school buses.
The people in hazmat suits seemed like a cleanup crew.
"Oh, this is weird," Elara breathed out.
~-~-~
"This isn't weird at all," Elara mumbled sarcastically as they entered the tent.
The hazmat suit man had directed them to follow the buses, and they ended up at some sort of recovery center. Elara thought it was strange.
At her side, Hope nodded. "Not at all."
They had managed to regroup with the twins and Hope, and when Lizzie spotted Elara, she gave her an odd look. The wolf couldn't determine exactly what it meant, but whatever it was, Josie and Hope both seemed aware of Lizzie's sudden bitterness towards her.
Hope leaned forward to talk to the adults and Elara. "The locals that we met said that they hadn't seen anything, which means that the first sign of trouble happened after we got here."
Elara glanced around. "And I'm guessing it didn't take them five minutes to set up this camp."
Emma nodded. "Meaning these people got here before the bugs. But how?"
Alaric turned back to look at the individuals helping the locals with paperwork. "I don't know who they are, but they are too prepared, organized, and well-equipped to be responding to some random insect attack."
"You together?" An older woman asked. She held a clipboard in her hand and a badge around her neck.
"Yeah, you know, we just came in from Roanoke to see that giant ball of yarn you guys have," Alaric lied.
The lady looked past him. "And these are?"
Alaric put on a fake smile, tossing an arm around Emma's shoulders. "This is my wife..." Emma laughed, playing along. "Emma. Uh..." He turned towards the teenagers. "These are my daughters. From my first marriage."
Elara sent a thin-lipped smile, and she heard a small noise of disgust behind her. She jabbed her elbow backwards into Lizzie's stomach, which seemed to work.
Smooth.
The woman gestured for them to continue further into the tent, and they went in.
Elara followed behind Hope, looking subtly at their surroundings. figured her eyes and ears could find something that the others couldn't. Conversation rumbled along, most of it unimportant and unintelligible. The medical equipment reminded Elara of a hospital, and she didn't like hospitals. The whirring and beeping of machines pulled at her mind like a rope, pulling at a blocked memory.
The ringing, the high-pitched ringing of danger, pushed itself into her mind. Elara steeled her expression as her eyes searched for the source, and they passed over a tall man. His hair was short, dark and curly. He wore a blue sweater, and he seemed so familiar.
Hope saw him, too. Her hand found Elara's wrist, tugging her towards a table with water coolers and Alaric. She'd noticed Elara's hesitation and spotted her wince at something unknown.
Subtly, Elara nodded towards the man. "Him. I don't know what it is, but I've seen him before. And my ears don't like it."
Hope caught on quickly to the phrase. "I saw him. Don't look, Dr. Saltzman, but that guy over there was outside of Seylah's house when we were in Kansas, with the fake gas leak."
Alaric lifted his head, looking at the guy.
"Don't be that obvious," Elara scolded.
Hope grabbed a cup and began to fill it with water. "What's he doing here?"
"I don't know," Alaric replied. "Probably the same thing we were. Trying to cover things up. There are groups like this scattered all over the globe. Probably tracking the same activity we were."
"A group that makes things that go bump in the night disappear," Elara mumbled, and Hope glanced at her curiously.
Her eyes returned to the space in front of her, and she noticed the men placing equipment in the back of a car. "Awful lot of artillery, too." Hope paused, then Elara heard her breath hitch in panic. "They're gear."
Elara and Alaric looked at it closer. They noticed the flippers, the oxygen tanks.
"They're here for the urn," Alaric declared.
"And they'll find Dorian," Elara added, her voice almost a whisper. "Crap, I knew I should've stayed with him."
"I'll see what I can do."
Night fell before they were able to do anything. They were all required to run through brief examinations to ensure that they weren't affected by the swarms. The teens sat together, waiting for Alaric and Emma to return.
Elara sat on Hope's left side, as far from Lizzie as possible. Whatever beef the twin decided she had with her was not something Elara wanted to deal with at the moment.
Josie suddenly spoke. "Hey, who is that guy?"
Elara looked at where Josie gestured, and her eyes landed on the back of the guy from Kansas. She had seen him before but had forgotten because of Malivore, yet it was like she felt the memory pressing against a barrier, trying to force itself free.
"This creep we met in Kansas when you guys were in Europe," Hope answered, sitting up straight. From how close they were sitting, her arm pressed against Elara's, and she could've sworn that Hope tensed at the contact.
"Why were you in Kansas?" Lizzie questioned. "Oh, wait, let me guess, it involved you insinuating yourself into a situation where only you could be the hero."
Elara huffed in frustration. Lizzie was in an extra poke-y mood, and Elara wasn't having it anymore.
"Actually, it was the two of us," Elara cut in. Her gaze hardened as she looked at Lizzie out of the side of her eye. "And whatever your problem is, Saltzman, you need to sort it out before I lose my patience."
Lizzie scoffed. "I can't believe you'd side with her."
"Leave her out of this," Hope said, but it went ignored.
"I thought you'd at least show some loyalty to your friend's sister."
"Okay." Elara started, turning her head towards Lizzie. "You want to bring up loyalty? Because I can talk about loyalty." Her eyes flickered towards Josie, who looked down ashamedly. The next words Elara intended to say were held back, surprisingly. The truth was she grew to understand why Josie did it. She was angry, yes, but not with Josie.
Instead, she took a deep breath. "I don't even know what the sides are, Lizzie," she said calmly to everyone's surprise. " And I'm not sure if you noticed or not because your head is so far up your own ass, but I wasn't with you in town. I have no clue what you're arguing about."
Lizzie huffed, crossing her arms against her chest and leaning back. Josie lifted her head, sending a small, grateful smile. Lizzie didn't know about Josie's actions, and Elara decided not to expose her.
Yet at least.
"The sides are plain as day, Elara. Hope clearly started the fire in her dorm room because she will do anything to get attention."
Elara knew about the event. Hope had mentioned it during one of their late-night conversations, and she knew just how devastated the tri-brid had been when it happened. For Lizzie to make it about herself was something that bothered Elara.
Hope scoffed at that. "Said the narcissist."
"Said the... other narcissist."
Josie appeared to also be fed up with the arguing, and Elara didn't blame her. Josie had dealt with the two bickering in town. "Okay, guys, can we please just stop?"
"Okay, fine," Hope snapped. "You know what? Maybe I was jealous. Maybe I wanted what you had. A simple day with my family." Her voice cracked ever so slightly. "I lost half of my stuff in that fire, including the only painting I made with my dad. Why would I do that to myself?" When she finished, she felt a hand slip into hers, and she didn't need to look to know it was Elara's.
Minutes of silence passed by. None of them wanting to speak, but then Hope noticed Alaric gesturing for her and Elara to follow him. The two exchanged a glance, unsure of what had happened between the headmaster and man from Kansas, but they knew it couldn't have been good.
Wordlessly, they followed.