Convergence - The Last Science #2.1 - In Plain Sight

B2: Chapter 9 - Flying Blind - I

  A furious knocking on the bedroom door accompanied a painful burst of sunlight into the room. Hailey's eyes snapped open.

  Jessica immediately began coughing the moment she woke up. Hailey groaned, both from the abrupt awakening and the realization that Jessica's rest had been cut short, after it had taken her so long to finally fall asleep.

  "What do you want?" she called out, definitely not in the mood for an argument. Her head felt like it was trying to split itself open, still sore from the events of the night before. Even with all their power, Hailey felt winded and raw from such a rapid series of spells—not to mention the whole burning building bit.

  Jessica rolled out of bed and padded over to the door in a daze, coughing as she went. She tripped slightly on her too-large pajamas before reaching the door and pulling it open, suddenly face-to-face with her mother.

  Beth was livid, almost to the point of shouting. "Your shoes and your jackets are covered in ash! What on earth were you doing?"

  "Working," Hailey repeated stubbornly, pulling a pillow over her face and pressing it against her ears.

  "Since when does working mean you're suddenly a firefighter? I thought you were just meeting people in parks and stores. Public places."

  "Something came up."

  "Don't brush me off, Hailey! You're responsible for way more than just yourself. You can't take stupid risks like this."

  Hailey felt a brief pang of homesickness. Sure, she wasn't exactly close with her own parents, but she still hadn't spoken to or seen either of them in over a year now. She'd had a similar confrontation with her mother after a few incidents back in her freshman year, and they hadn't had a real conversation in years. She'd made sure to call every month though, at the very least. They'd patched things up and she'd been planning to go home for Thanksgiving this year, maybe even introduce her to Jessica... somehow.

  It was barely a month away, but Hailey doubted she'd be getting the opportunity. You know, since I'm dead and all...

  She set the pillow aside, looking Beth in the eyes. "This was more important."

  "Your lives are more important," Beth snapped. She held up Jessica's coat and shook it, causing a shower of ash to fall to the carpet. "You take my daughter into a dangerous situation and you better believe I'm not going to let this go."

  She took a step into the room, but Jessica blocked her path.

  "Jess?" Beth asked, faltering.

  Jessica shook her head. She pointed at the jacket, then pointed at herself and nodded firmly. She pointed back at Hailey and shook her head. She repeated the sequence when Beth didn't quite seem to catch it.

  "She's dangerous, can't you see that?" she asked weakly.

  Jessica didn't understand, so she repeated the sequence a third time.

  "I don't care if you chose it, I don't want you getting hurt." Beth put her arms around her daughter, hugging her tight. Jessica returned it, but she immediately broke into another painful cough. Beth's eyes shot back up to Hailey. "Can't you do anything for that?"

  Hailey shook her head. "I don't think so. All I could do is maybe help oxygen get to her lungs, but that's not really the problem she's having. She just needs time for the irritation to heal."

  "And a hospital?"

  "A hyperbaric chamber, maybe?" Hailey tried to dredge up what she'd looked up online the night before, after they'd returned home. "I don't think it'd do much either. They'd probably just scan her a couple times and say the same thing, just rest and wait. If they didn't freak out from the other things about her."