Miraculously, Amaru was released with no charges before Internal Affairs even arrived.
No less than an hour later and he found himself in the back of a minivan, where the reality of the situation slowly began to hit him as he sat shoulder to shoulder with more physically imposing ethnically ambiguous women.
"Wait….she called that guy a wizard…. the guy I saw in my head….. and he warned her about…. transforming in public????. Then they practically broke me out of juvie and are now driving me across the state. That's it. I'm manic-schizotypical and a group of child snatchers got me by confirming my delusions."
With a new view of his situation, Amaru looked at the women seated at his left and right. They felt like they were made of iron. He thought he was the only one who felt that way.
"This man-shaped boy reeks of fear suddenly." The one to his left said.
Ms. Markos— who was driving, looked in the interior rear-view mirror to eyeball him. She didn't seem to find anything alarming and shrugged, "His world is changing. Even the bravest warriors tremble before transformation."
The woman seated to his left leaned forward to eyeball her friend and whispered, "Elena, write that down."
The woman to Amaru's right— named Elena, pulled out a notebook and actually did— if only a bit sarcastically. She had her hair styled in two braids and had a thick septum piercing in her nose.
"So, where in Chicago are you taking me? Group home? Orphanage?" Amaru asked.
"We're not going to Chicago just yet." Ms. Markos replied.
"We're not?" Amaru braced himself.
"No. I don't like working on a set time table. It makes us easier to intercept." Ms. Markos said.
"Intercept? By who?" Amaru felt like jumping out of the window.
"All of your questions will be answered once we get to Chicago. We just have to make a pit stop."
"Yea…" Elena started, "Don't want to run into any Cainites—"
"Elena!" Ms. Markos snarled and swerved the car, forcing Elena to smack her head against the window so hard it cracked.
Elena didn't look nearly as pained as she did angry. She snarled at the back of Ms. Markos seat with….. glowing eyes?
"Control yourself before I do it for you." Ms. Markos said as they slowly sped up on the freeway.
It grew tense. The air became heavy. It felt wrong to move. Like Amaru would become the focus of their poorly veiled aggression. So he didn't. He didn't move. He never felt fear for a fight. Except for this moment. Where it felt like both more and less than that. Like death and conversation. On the same playing field.
Amaru braced himself. He'd swing at whatever moved first and jump out of the car even if it was going at one-hundred and twenty miles per hour. He healed. He always healed.
Until then, he watched. Partially because he was paralyzed by fear. For the first time.
Elena's skin darkened. Amaru wasn't the most watchful person of all time, but he could've sworn, her hairline was lower than before. Her jaw was thicker. He felt squished in his seat as her shoulders broadened. She was growing.
He was shrinking.
He pushed back. To hell with waiting or trying to understand the weird dominance game he was stuck between. He needed space. He needed peace.
Amaru shoved her aside, "You need to back u—"
Elena switched her aimed aggression at Amaru with a reactive bark, "DONT T—"
Amaru swung, driving his hard knuckles into her nose. He felt the break of cartiledge on his fingers as he twisted his fist into her face.
She yelped and smacked the back of her head against the window so hard it shattered. Highway winds spun into the vehicle as the other women in the car erupted into cackling laughter and disturbed snarls.
Amaru kept his hand in Elena's face, immediately lowering it to her throat to hold her head outside of the car door. Her arms flailed and she cut into his forearm with thick black claws. Whatever press ons she had, they were deadly to say the least.
Amaru looked behind him. The other woman watched with minor amusement. He turned to the front seat. Ms. Markos watched him from the mirror.
He spoke, "Pull over. Now. We're done here."
Ms. Markos shook her head. "I'm sorry….. we can't do that."
"Why?"
"You're rare, Amaru. You could be a great help to us."
"What even are you? Who is us?" Amaru asked.
"We're like you. But to explain that, we have to do so carefully. It's why I had to silence Elena. She can sometimes speak too freely."
Elena had stopped trying to rip his flesh from his arms. Only because he choked her out.
One of them gasped.
Ms. Markos grinned. "You may let her go. She won't harm you. None of us will unless agreed upon mutually in combat."
Amaru didn't even bother trying to rationalize her words.
He let Elena go. She hung limp out of the window for a second before jumping up.
Amaru cradled his bloodied arm, already feeling the flesh and muscle knit itself back together beneath the hand that covered the wounds. He held his hand in a fist. Just in case she felt up for round two.
Ms. Markos took note as she drove, "You don't have to hide, Amaru."
Amaru looked down at his arm. It was now covered in old looking scabs. He usually stayed away from people when he healed.
"Like I said. We are like you. Isn't that right, Elena?"
Elena grunted as she wiped her nose.
Amaru was surprised to find that not only was it not broken, but she wasn't bleeding. Not even a bruise.
He looked down at her hands and found no bladed press-ons. Just regular black painted nails.
"What the hell?" Amaru thought.
Even though he shouldn't have. He ran into a plane-stepping hooded man twice and it wasn't coincidence.
"Just wait until we get to Chicago. Wait until you meet him. Then you can decide for yourself. And people will help you along the way. No matter what."
"I don't need help." Amaru said reflexively.
"That's the spirit." Ms. Markos replied. Then, she turned to look at Elena. "Say no more. He knows nothing. If he reaches any sort of emotional or existential overstimulation in this car, it will be a bad day for us all."
Elena kept her eyes low and shook her shoulders.
The woman on Amaru's left reached over him and playfully shoved her.
She smiled faintly and shook her head. Like a scolded sibling.
It was weirdly reassuring to know she wasn't actually hurt.
Maybe they were like him.
"I uhhh….. I'm not sorry." Amaru said to Elena.
Elena side eyed him.
Ms. Markos laughed out loud.
"No— I mean, I don't regret protecting myself. But I didn't mean to break the window with your head."
Elena chuckled, "Hit harder next time if you want to keep your arm in one piece."
Amaru didn't have a reply.
Elena winked at him and put her eyes back to the floor.
Amaru looked ahead, "Ms. Markos, I'm sorry for the car damage."
"Ah." Ms Markos waved him off, "After today, we're about two million dollars richer thanks to you. A broken window is nothing. I'm buying a new car."
Amaru thought back to all she'd filmed in the police station. He didn't think she'd get so much for the lawsuit but she seemed like a person who always knew what was going on around her.
"Ok!? You hear that ladies? Money. We get money. So everybody stop acting crazy. Just sit down and let us make this trip in one piece." Ms. Markos said to everyone.
They all replied as one.
"Yes, Ms. Markos!"
Amaru sat deeper into his seat.
Maybe he wasn't schizophrenic. But that birthed about a million new questions.
The ride lasted about another two hours. It was well into nightfall and Amaru found himself drifting in and out of sleep. Anytime someone moved he was awake and ready for whatever was coming his way.
A learned behavior.
Some foster parents were nicer than others.
None were exactly nice, though.
The blurring ride of weird glances and gossip came to an end as they pulled into a motel that looked like it was a breeze away from breaking down into a million pieces. Paint and wood furnish chipped off the fake planks. The motel-twelve glowing logo was flickering in and out of life. And despite the blinds being pulled and doors being triple bolted, he could hear just about everything inside.
Drugs.
Sex.
More drugs.
Sex on the tv.
Drugs on the tv.
...cheese curds?
He stepped out of the car and stretched, hesitating only as he noticed they all were stretching and yawning like dogs let out of their cages.
Ms. Markos laughed as she stormed past them.
Beside her— from the shadows, two black and brown husky looking dogs trotted beside her.
"Where the hell did they come from?" Amaru asked.
"They ran with us." Elena said before putting a finger to her lips.
Amaru digested the information as well as he could before following after them to their motel room.
Thankfully it was right in front.
He waited at the window as Ms. Markos flicked and swished her fingers to the massive huskies. Giving commands. They gave a bow before trotting off around the entire motel.
Amaru turned to his left and came face to face with a no pets allowed sign.
"Emotional support dogs." Ms. Markos said as he looked back at her.
"….right."
Amaru faced the motel.
Because of the sheer number of them at the door, he was offsides with his face to the covered window.
He saw himself.
He looked the same as always. He was large everywhere. Frame, stature, features, you name it. He had the same thick black eyebrows framing his large brown eyes with just enough space to give way to his thick curled nose. When he was a kid they used to call him birdboy because it curled like a beak. His lips were on the slimmer side but that could've been an illusion thanks to the bulk of his jaw.
Which was only visible because he had his shoulder length black and brown curly hair tucked behind his ears. The black piercings at each lobe twinkled.
The bruises around his eye and split in his lip were gone.
He didn't look any less rough.
He always looked that way.
Grumpy. Rough. Brooding—
At least that's what he was used to.
But the face looking back at him in the glass changed as the blinds swung open.
Suddenly the face looking at him was softer. The skin was more radiant. The same bronze shade with a beautiful luster. Less like mud and more like spun caramel and chocolate. The hair was also different. Shinier and straight as ironed curtains. It framed a youthful face with a button nose, freckles, blue eyes darkened by thick eyeliner and a neck covered in tattoos.
"Who the hell are you?"
The figure in the reflection asked.
Amaru blinked, "I…. Don't know."
The woman on the other side of the window made a face.
Half a dozen voices behind her erupted into giggling laughter.
The woman beside him outside also laughed as the lock to the door clicked off and opened.
"Everyone be easy on the man-shaped boy. He's had a long day." Ms. Markos said as she beckoned him inside.
Amaru walked away from the window and stepped into a motel room. It was full of even more women. Visibly younger with some looking like children.
Which was alarming because they all had guns and swords and….
An Axe.
She was wielding an axe.
And he then realized the woman in the reflection was simply a girl on the other side of the window.
She was as tall as Amaru and wearing entirely too much leather as she leaned on her axe.
"Mom, who's this?" She asked Ms. Markos.
"This is him, Alexa." She replied. "The one Braun sent for?"
Ms. Markos nodded.
Amaru looked at Ms. Markos.
The other younger women in the room suddenly looked at Amaru in a new light.
"No way…"
"Isn't he too small?"
Amaru had never heard he was "too small".
"He's not scary enough."
Or that.
"Yea he's just…. medium handsome. That's not scary, that's boring!" Someone else said.
"Quiet, you harpies!" Ms. Markos snapped.
"He punched Elena through a window and choked her out." One of the woman he rode in the car with said.
All of the younger women in the motel went silent.
Elena laughed, "Don't get too afraid. He was lucky. I was surrounded by sheep."
Elena slapped Amaru on the back. "Have a seat, pup. We rest here for tonight."
Amaru knew one thing for sure as he looked around the room.
"I'm not sleeping."
But that fact felt more nebulous as the women conversed and played casually. As if they weren't touting deadly weapons and fantastical armaments.
He didn't feel in danger. Sure, he was scared, but he was always scared when moving homes.
What he wasn't usually, was excited.
Except for now—
"What are you looking at?" Lexa asked.
As if she wasn't carrying a six foot long black metal axe with roses carved in it….