6:45 A.M. We Were Strangers Setting Out on A Journey

“Isabelle?” Dwight Hendrickson’s hand on her elbow startled Isabelle out of the zone. She glanced up sharply from the pot she’d been stirring with such attention she’d apparently been able to block out the 6”4 giant’s approach.

“Soup’s got thirty more minutes, Dwight,” she droned, as if she’d given the same update fifty times already. The soup was definitely not going to be done in thirty minutes but any longer than that and she got bitchy responses from hungry people. Kitchen duty was definitely not her favorite but it beat guarding the Sleeping Beauty tower.

Dwight huffed a laugh his eyes crinkling in the weak sunlight filtering through the windows.

Isabelle smiled back. Dwight didn’t smile enough.

“Not what I was going to ask,” he said. “Can I talk to you a minute?”

Isabelle put the spoon down and wiped her hands on the dirty apron she wore. “What’s up? You’ve got Trouble face on,” she added in a much quieter voice, glancing around the room out of ingrained habit. There was no need to hide whatever he had to say, everyone knew about the Troubles now. Still it felt odd to be discussing this in plain sight.

“I’ve got an assignment for you if you’re willing to take it,” Dwight explained.

Isabelle appreciated that Dwight almost always asked, unlike Vince who had sent cryptic messages that always seemed to carry the hint of a threat.

“What is it?”

Dwight grimaced then met her gaze. “There’s a book, the Soleil family has had it in their family for generations. Gladys Soleil told me about it this morning. It could be a real resource for Audrey and Nathan, especially given…” Dwight gestured around to encompass the mess of the high school and the shroud and the state of their town.

Isabelle nodded.

“We needed all the resources we can get to deal with this mess. So what’s in the book?”

“The Soleil family has been compiling a list of Troubled and their Troubles for the last four hundred years apparently. Gladys and her sister Agatha argued about keeping it a secret. Apparently they don’t trust the Guard,” Dwight gave a wry smile. “If you can imagine that,” he added.
Isabelle laughed softly.

“So you want me to go get the book?”

“You and Carson if you’re up for it. You guys can meet up tomorrow at seven by the entrance. It should be light out enough by then.”
“Where are we going?”

Dwight looked her dead in the eye. “It’s on Poplar Street, down by the waterfront.”

"Trouble Alley?" Isabelle tried her best to tone down the screech in her voice. She wasn’t that successful. She didn’t really try that hard. That explained why Dwight wanted her to go. Why not send Dizzy Izzy who threw herself into danger to prove she wasn’t scared of anything down the most Troubled street in town complete with invisible beast that could rip cars in half. Isabelle had bravado in spades but she still had a smidgen of self-preservation. “Dwight—”

“Isabelle, I need this book. Things are getting dicier by the minute,” his glance encompassed the hungry faces standing in the doorway, the whispered conversations going on around them. “The Trouble for bringing down the fog wall could be in that book or something to offset the Darkness Trouble. We need it. Not to mention-” Dwight hesitated here. “No one in the Guard has ever heard of a family who are able to throw up a shield Trouble like yours. Your biological parents’ names could be in that book,” Dwight pointed out.

Izzy glared hard at Dwight. He backed off looking embarrassed.

“Look,” he said, putting a hand on her shoulder. He met her gaze, projecting sincerity, “you Thomases are one of my biggest assets, you’re smart and resourceful and level headed. I know you can handle this.”

“Sure, now I’m a Thomas,” Isabelle groused.

“You’re always a Thomas,” Dwight rolled his eyes at her. “And Thomas’ are the ones I can call on to do the things that make sane people run screaming right?”

Isabelle deeply resented all of her brothers in that moment. She’d only started pretending to be brave so they’d let her play with them. Her reputation for being fearless had only grown with her as she did more and more ridiculous things just to keep up with those Daring Thomas boys. Since the Troubles had returned she’d only had hers turn on four times. She’d been doing her damnedest to keep it to just four times.

“Who’ve you got with a silencing Trouble that you’re sending with us? Because the Carson Trouble is water not silence.”

Dwight shook his head. “You guys are it. I don’t have any other members of the Guard I can spare.”

“Dwight!”

“I know this is a lot to ask, Isabelle. I wouldn’t if I didn’t have to.”

Isabelle subsided. “I hate that I know that’s true,” she grumbled.

“Agatha Soleil should be at West Haven high. The house should be empty once you get there.” Dwight pressed a sheet of paper into her hands. “These are the directions for where the book is hidden.”

Isabelle sighed and tucked the paper into the pocket of her jeans. “You owe me.” She told Dwight.

He grinned. “You got it.”

“I’m not kidding. I get hot showers for three days when I get back.”

“I’ll see what I can do,” Dwight promised. "I'll also try to round up a couple more volunteers from the civilians tonight because I don't like sending just the two of you either."

"Civilians?" Isabelle faked a shudder and Dwight chuckled. "Just don't saddle me with any fools who are going to get themselves killed, Dwight."

========

Isabelle arrived at the entrance the next morning at 6:45, bleary eyed and weighed down by a pack and the warmest sweater she could find under her dark green coat.

“Trouble Alley,” she groused to herself. “I must really be crazy.”

She set down her pack and propped her shoulders against the wall, waiting for Carson and whoever to show up.

The sky through the windows was a pearly shade of grey, sunrise wasn’t far off. The fluorescent lights glared off the tile. Isabelle closed her eyes and settled in to wait.

It did not take standing still long for Isabelle to be joined by a little black cat with short fur and green eyes. The cat sat down a couple of yards from Isabelle, bent tail wrapped around its little paws, and regarded her as if waiting for something.

Isabelle wasn't sure what made her open her eyes, it wasn't a sound. But when she did there was a cat sitting a few feet away in the deserted hallway. She smiled and made kissy noises at the cat, trying to draw her closer.

"Here kitty, kitty, kitty," she crooned, leaning forward and stretching out her hand to be sniffed. "Did you come to keep me company?"

The cat meowed in response to Isabelle's question, in the exact manner cats are wont to do when humans ask them questions with obvious answers. She regarded Isabelle for another long moment before getting to her feet as if it were the most enormous chore, and stretched languidly to prove that it was her own idea to come over. Then her tail flicked up and she trotted over to rub her cheek against Isabelle's outstretched fingers, shifting to get her ears rubbed as well. She had very, very soft fur and a loud purr that sounded like marbles clattering together in a plastic cup.

Shortly afterwards, a tallish girl appeared in the entranceway. She wore weathered Dickies, a denim shirt, and a fishing hat over her blonde hair. "Ms. Thorne?" she said quietly. "Isabelle?"

Isabelle scritched behind the cat's ears obligingly. She was marvelously soft and purred like a freight train. Isabelle missed the girl's approach but heard her quiet calls. She glanced up and smiled.

"Lilybeth? Hi. Come to see your dad off?" she asked, scratching under the cat's chin now. "Is this your cat?"

Lilybeth smiled a small, quick smile. "No, I've never seen her before. I'll bet she's someone's though--she looks healthy."

She paused and took a deep breath. "I'm, ah, I'm taking Dad's place on the mission."

The cat's ears flicked up and she pulled away from being pet in order to look sharply at Lilybeth at the mention of a mission. She meowed loudly, somehow managing to sound like she was scolding the girl.

"It's too early for jokes, Lil," Isabelle sighed, "is your dad late?"

Before Lilybeth could answer, the next arrival came silently around a corner to join them.  Infamous 'Doc' Little, wearing his usual weatherbeaten black leathers and scowl, loomed over both girls, ignoring them as he stared curiously at the cat.

The cat stared right back, ears pinned at Doc's scrutiny.

Isabelle glanced over her shoulder to see what had startled the cat. "Hey, Doc," she grunted, then gave the cat a reassuring pet. "He's okay," she whispered to the cat.

Lilybeth held her breath a moment, then let it out. "Not a joke. My Trouble's active and I can control it. Dwight cleared me earlier, you can ask him if you like."

Isabelle stopped petting the cat. She stood to her full height which was still several inches shorter than the girl which annoyed her greatly. She put one hand on her hip and and pressed the fingers of the other to the bridge of her nose.

"Lilybeth, this was a dangerous mission before. With you along instead of your dad it's a suicide mission. There is no way Dwight cleared you because Dwight Hendrickson does not hate me enough to want me dead. What are you trying to pull?"

"This doesn't go outside this room, okay?"

She looked over at the other occupant. "Hey, Doc."

Isabelle tapped her foot, rapidly losing patience. "Just tell me."

"Dad's not well; it's his heart. He was gonna come anyway, but... I convinced Dwight I could do the job. I'm gonna be eighteen in a couple months--I'm not a kid any more." Lilybeth raised her chin, looking Isabelle square in the eye.

Tanner really hadn’t planned to be up so early.  He wasn’t a morning person, and it wasn’t like he’d found his cot particularly early the night before.  But it was hard to sleep with all the lights on, was hard to sleep when the battery dying or the lantern being knocked over might mean a sudden and fatal darkness-

-it was hard to sleep when Matt and Pete both snored like nothing else, but it wasn’t like there was a lot of choice in the rooming arrangements.

So Tanner was awake, and the more he’d tried to lie quietly, the more the never-ending music had ramped up, pulsing in his ears loudly enough to give him a headache.  At least none of his roommates had noticed it yet- they were all still blithely unaware of the overwhelming crush of sound.  And the more it annoyed him, the louder it got, until getting up and moving had been his only real option.

It had quieted once he was roaming the hallways, fading down to a soft, melancholy swirl of piano and strings as he paused to look at the cases that had not so long ago held trophies and ribbons.  They were mostly covered over, now, notes and warnings, but a few were still partly visible, full of cheerful remnants of normalcy and better times.

The music soured, his stomach twisting at the reminder, and he drifted toward the front entrance- he wasn’t exactly sure what he planned to do, it wasn’t exactly safe to just go for a walk, but the sun was rising and at least near the doors there’d be the safety of natural light.

And it beat dwelling on the pretense of how things used to be.

He was a little surprised to find that there were already people in the entryway- no one he recognized, just a kid about his brother’s age and a woman a few years older, standing close in the shadow of- and apparently unbothered by- a forbidding and imposing man in black leather.

Tanner hesitated, unsure if he’d stumbled onto a private conversation- it looked kind of intense, and he really, really did not want to interrupt, but turning around and going back directly the way he’d come would be fairly obvious, and there wasn’t exactly anywhere else to go.  Of course, standing there and trying not to stare wasn’t exactly going to be less obvious.

He really, really wished they weren’t between him and the doors.

“Mornin’, Tanner,” a light voice croaked in conjunction with a solid clap to his shoulder. Riesy McGlynn, who had been a few years ahead of him in school, walked passed him and right into the tense atmosphere he had been avoiding. “You out on this jaunt?” S/he hooked a thumb out at the three in the vestibule, adjusting the pack on shiz back. Turning back to the group, s/he raised shiz chin respectfully at Doc Little, but said nothing to him.

“Private McGlynn, reporting for duty!” S/he called, boots thudding smartly on the way to Isabelle. S/he saluted upside down, ignoring the tense atmosphere. Then, shiz face lit with a bright smile. “Hex! I was looking for you, little dude, you skipped breakfast.” S/he crouched down to open the backpack and dig out the remains of a bologna sandwich wrapped in wax paper. S/he ripped bits off to offer to the black cat at Isabelle’s feet, then looked up to bat long eyelashes at their fearless leader. “When do we roll out, boss?”

'Hex' snorted, but wound her way around Riesy's feet once before accepting the proffered breakfast. She did not skip breakfast, she had been trying to avoid yet more bologne but here we were. Again. She meowed and began cleaning her paws and face, apparently ignoring the group.

"You have got to be kidding me," Isabelle swore under her breath. She turned around and took a few steps away, taking deep breaths. Brian Carson was a good man, he was a good husband and a good father to Lilybeth. Obviously, or this idiot child wouldn't be here trying to convince Izzy to let her go along.

She turned around at Riesy's voice.

"We?" Isabelle could hear her voice going higher but Riesy was hardly better back up than Lilybeth. S/he was flighty and took absolutely nothing seriously! Isabelle caught sight of the teenage boy lurking behind Riesy's shoulder. Tanner? Wasn't he one of the Rev's people?

"I never signed up for supervising a freaking class field trip!" Isabelle protested, feeling her chest go tight with anxiety.

These were children! She couldn't be responsible for children and get through Trouble Alley!

Tanner barely kept back a yelp at the greeting and subsequent clap on the shoulder; he thought he vaguely recognized the- girl?- as one of the seniors from his freshman year, but he wasn’t entirely sure, and McGlynn didn’t mean anything particular to him.  He gritted his teeth against the sharp and strident pulse of music- something screechy and repetitive and entirely unnecessary for a minor startle- until it faded out into a light tinkle of notes that sounded like chagrin.

“I- don’t... think so?” he started to answer, but he wasn’t sure it mattered- her attention had shifted as quickly as it had arrived, focused on a little black cat he’d overlooked before.  Still, there was no escaping the fact that he’d been noticed, and his presence announced to the rest of the gathering, so at least there wasn’t any point in continuing to lurk in the hallway.  “I was- just thinking about going outside?  But if-”

He stopped himself, not sure anyone was actually listening, and unsure he wanted to volunteer himself even if they were.

Even if the thought of going somewhere was definitely better than the thought of spending all day cooped up with the rest of the angry, frightened, unhappy town.

At the apparent leader's outburst, he was glad he'd stopped the rest of the thought- she didn't exactly look like she wanted any additional help.

Riesy put both hands up to placate the boss. "Okay, dragon lady, easy. We promise to stay in single file and keep our hands in our pockets. But some of us have grown up like this," s/he said, one hand pointing in towards shiz chest, and the other gesturing over to Lilybeth, "and we know our worth, and want to be some kind of help. Sitting here sucks, ask Tanner. He's played every sport known to man, I'm handy with power tools and swinging implements, Doc's scarier than anything we'll meet out there, Lily can drown the damn thing, even the cat has claws. It's not a bad group."

Isabelle caught the very odd scent of her grandmother's lavender perfume as Riesy talked. It put her in mind of safe, quiet afternoons hunched over the puzzle table when the boys were banished to the backyard. It unknotted some of the tension in her chest. She felt guilty over the "know their worth" comment, sure the kids had worth but this wasn't the Haven that had been. Then part of Riesy's comment penetrated the fuzz of the perfume.

"Doc?" Isabelle rounded on him. "You're coming too?"

She didn't wait for him to answer.

"Look, nevermind okay," she threw up her hands. "It's fine. This is fine. You can all stay here. Lilybeth, go look after your dad. Tell him I'm sorry about his heart and will check in on him when I get back. I will go get the book on my own and it'll be even better because I'm quiet and I'm light on my feet and I will get there and back quicker."

Hex yowled disapproval at the idea of Isabelle going off alone.