"The war was hard on all of us. If it weren't for Isla and I going through it together, I don't know if I would have made it out as mostly well as I did. Having a partner like that can change everything."
-Daniel Crowley

ESTHER

I'm running straight to Milo's house, since he is literally the only person in Appalachia I can trust right now. I would say the only person in the world, but at least I still have Tempest. I hope she comes to visit soon. It is already dark outside, but Milo's bedroom glows with light. It's not too late in the evening to see him, but it may be too late to knock.

I am just about to run around to the side of the house where I can get a clear shot at Milo's window with some pebbles from the yard when his mom Dr. Valencia opens the door, phone in hand. "Yes, she's here," she tells someone on the other end. Probably my mom... Eleanor... my adopted mom... whatever I call her now. Dr. Valencia holds her hand over the phone. "Es, come on in; Milo is just up in his room. It's your mom just wondering where you are. She said you missed a call from your cousin and that's when they realized you were gone. They were worried about you."

I'm tempted to say something smart in return, but I don't want to point my aggression at Milo's mom, not when she is opening her home to me and allowing me to see Milo, even when my family is looking for me. That's not fair. I nod, fake my best half-smile, and walk toward her.

That's when it happens.

An explosion down the street shatters the first story windows of a house. It's where a boy in my class named Cam, another Perfect, lives. I feel like a deer caught in the cross hairs of its hunters, frozen in the middle of the street, slightly hunched over from the startling burst of flames and glass.

"What was that?" Milo's mom asks, running into the street to meet me.

"I... don't know," I mutter.

Hicksmonians begin pouring from their homes into the street, many of whom race toward the fire that now crackles and hisses inside Cam's home's old brick walls. The whole scene lights the night in orange and red, making each of us indistinguishable, just black and blue shadows running back and forth.

Another shadow passes me, Dr. Valencia, as she runs toward the flames with her first aid kit. I realize then that I still haven't moved, and while everyone else around me seems to be helping, I'm still stuck, frozen in shock. Until Milo's phone rings. Somehow I can hear it all the way inside his house, above the screams, above the blaze, and above the static in my mind. I turn back toward his house to find him running out the meet me, still slipping a shirt over his head. For a second I catch a glimpse of his toned abdomen, shadowed by the flames, but they don't give me the same butterflies they normally would. All that's inside me is fear. Strike that—there is so much more inside me.

Questions take over the majority. Is Cam ok? What happened? Who did this? What happened to all our years of peace and calm?

Confusion and rage consume the rest of me.

And still, the phone rings. I know it's my psuedo-mom. She's worried about me. She heard the blast, and now she's scared. That has to be it. But despite her caring for me, I can't help but feel a pang of anger shoot up my shine at each shrill from the phone.

My cheeks warm, and I can feel a tingling inside me, but Milo's touch brings me back to equilibrium. I barely would have noticed him at my side had it not been for his hand on my arm. "Are you ok?" he asks. "You feel warm. You didn't get burned, did you?"

Knowing that he cares means more to me than knowing that any of my family does. So I smile. Despite everything. I smile. "No, I didn't. I'm ok. I'm just scared. Where's Cam?"

"Is that whose house it was?" Milo asks as he shifts his attention from me to the blaze down the street. "Well, c'mon, we have to help."

Milo was always the better half.

We hurry down the street until it becomes a little more congested with people surrounding a piece of technology that looks completely fried. Dr. Valencia, Declan, Julian, and a few ther helpers from the community stand around the technology as Declan lifts it with long pliers. "What do you think, Julian? You could still tap into that, right?"

Julian shakes his head. "I... um... for once in a long time, I'm not sure."

Someone, a rescue worker in full out gear, emerges from the flames and calls to Dr. Valencia. She looks up, still not seeing Milo or I lurking behind them, listening in on everything. There are enough people gathered for us to blend in.

"Anything?"

The rescue worker shakes his head. "No one."

My stomach drops. Not nothing. No one.

"What does that mean?" Milo asks, effectively announcing us to the group.

"Milo, honey, go back home."

He doesn't have the mouth that I apparently inherited from Isla, so instead of doing as we've been told, I speak up. "Cam was our classmate. We deserve to know: What happened? Where is he?"

Dr. Valencia shakes her head, though it's unclear to me whether she does this out of insistence that we leave or uncertainty. "If I tell you both," she starts, "you won't be able to rest... ever again."

"What?" Milo asks.

Then Declan butts in. "Maybe we shouldn't say anything. Bea is on her way, we'll see what she thinks."

"No, c'mon, tell us," I insist.

Dr. Valencia concedes to Declan. "You're right. We will wait."

***

Hours pass and still no word as to where Cam is, what happened, or what exactly the rescue worker meant by "no one." I, of course, have my assumptions, as I'm sure Milo does too. But we don't talk about it while we hold each other in his bed, taking advantage of these hours without Dr. Valencia's open door, no bed policy, but not taking advantage of each other in any way. Just warmth, comfort, and love surround us as our minds dip into the dark possibilities.

In the silence, I hear the door open downstairs and we instinctively scurry to Milo's loveseat couch he has in his room. "Yeah, she's fine here for the night," Dr. Valencia seems to say into a phone. "I'll try to keep her happy, no worries. Yep. Yep. Yeah, ok, that's fine. It's really not a problem. Ok, goodnight. Yeah, you too. Ok, bye."

I hear the beep of the phone as Dr. Valencia hangs up, and then the stairs creak as she walks to meet us. When she clears the doorway of Milo's room, I see that her skin is smudged with soot from the fire and I smell that the scent of burning wood has clung to her.

Milo sits up. "Mom... tell us what happened."

She is a sucker for her son, always has been. So when she sits on the bed, I know we will finally hear the truth. Not the delayed version my family likes to give me. The real truth.

"Honey... Es... Cam died tonight."

Cam and I weren't ever close, but it's a small town. Everyone was my friend. My stomach collapses, and tears immediately rush to my eyes. Milo is composed enough to ask, "How?"

"I don't know how to tell you this," she starts. She takes a deep breath, then releases. "He spontaneously combusted."

My mouth falls open in shock. I didn't know that was something that could actually happen. Then she tells us that the news gets worse.

"Declan and Julian believe that it may happen to more of you."

"More of who?" I ask to clarify.

She swallows hard. "More of the Perfects. Like both of you."