Master of the Storm

Chapter Twenty Six: Tunnel

A/N: I was looking at pictures of abandoned train station on Pinterest and got inspiration for a chapter 

The veins on Valerie's hands were bright blue and her skin was weirdly shiny. She was also shivering. But what horrified me was the fact that the fingertips on her pinky and ring finger of her left hand were black. She was looking pretty banged up these days, even though her nose was fine now, her eye was almost completely swelled shut.

"Jesus-fucking-Christ," Pluto exclaimed, which about covered it.

"This isn't my powers being used," she said, surprisingly calm as I rushed to put her hands under the hot water of the sink. "I never feel cold while using them. It's like my hands are slowly freezing up."

"When did this start?" I asked.

"I've been feeling pretty cold for the past few days," she admitted. "Like, everywhere. I've been layering up, trying to keep warm, but it's like the coldness is inside me."

"That's concerning," I said. "But I expected it. You need to fight this, Valerie. We don't have a lot of time."

"Fight it? Bullshit, she needs to go to a hospital," Pluto said. We ignored them.

"If we don't have a lot of time," Valerie started. "Then I wanna go into the city and hang out. You guys should come!"

"That is a terrible idea," I said.

"What? Why? Wait, is this cause a ton of people are looking for us? And there's a warrant for your arrest? Alexis told me about it."

"That's exactly why," I said.

"It'll be fine," she said. "We can wear disguises!"

"You are way too calm about the fact that you're on the verge of losing your fingers," I told her.

She shrugged. "I don't really use those fingers. I mean, I only text with my thumbs."

"You guys do that," Pluto said. "Lunch is ending soon, so I'm gonna go back to school. Call me if anything happens, though."

They left the building, and Valerie pulled me towards the small empty room near the bathroom that she'd been sleeping in. I spent most of my nights awake and contemplating life, so I'd never really claimed my territory in our home.

There was nothing in the room except for a few blankets and a suitcase that she'd brought from home. "I have a ton of clothes in there," she said. "You find something that's different from your usual style, and I'll go put my hair up. I look totally different like that."

She left, and I searched through the suitcase. I would never wear most of the things in it, which I guessed was the point. I settled on a long, loose black jacket, a pearl necklace, and a simple white dress with a cherry print. It was sleeveless and went down to my knees. I had to admit, I felt pretty in her clothes. Like, prettier than usual.

She came back in the room with the same outfit but her hair in a bun, and some sunglasses. She was right, she looked like a completely different person with her hair up.

"You look cute!" she said. "Let's go."

"Where are we going, exactly?" I asked. "Well, I was thinking that first, we would go to a restaurant, get some food. We'll figure it out from there."

A little while later, we were strolling through the city, and she had stopped me outside of a restaurant. "There's a line outside," I said, as she stepped around the people waiting. "Shouldn't we-"

"We don't have to," she assured me.

"Do your parents own it or something?" I asked.

"Not exactly," she said. "They invested in this restaurant and now it's super successful. I know the owner's son. I think his parents like me more than they like him."