Monday 3:30 p.m. October 3rd

Where is she?

Mrs. Essex had taken it upon herself to call Jordan's mother and inform her of their little "incident" in class today. She then had the gall to "suggest" that her daughter not ride the bus today, so that Delilah could administer the appropriate discipline. School had ended at three and now it was three thirty and her mom was nowhere in sight. Jordan wasn't thrilled about the conversation that was bound to happen on the car ride home "Jordan, you had to do this today? You couldn't have waited a week to stand up for yourself? I don't know how I'm going to explain this one away to Mr. Reuter." However, she didn't relish the thought of waiting outside for them to find the handprint she'd left on the wall. She prayed that the whole thing had fried the cameras, but with her luck, she found that outcome unlikely.

At this point in the day, all that remained were kids that stayed after school for extracurricular activities or academic probation, neither of which were Jordan's crowd. If I had a crowd. A kid broke from the pack of academic probation kids waiting for their parents, a kid with a tie dye backpack, Derek, and he was heading straight for her. She'd positioned herself behind one of the massive blue pillars on either side of the school's front doors in an effort to escape the attention of her peers, but that didn't matter at this point. His big, hazel eyes were locked on hers, and he had ear-splitting grin plastered to his face. The Sun glinting off his braces highlighted the boy's face as if he was radiating positive energy and excitement. He knew.

He looked over his shoulders before approaching Jordan. By the time he stopped moving, Jordan could feel his hot breath on her cheek. "I know why you don't talk to anybody," he whispered followed by another furtive glance over his shoulder.

"I don't think you do." she said taking a step back from him.

He took another step forward, "You've got a secret."

This time, she felt her cheeks flush when his breath passed over her, "You don't know what you're talking about. I'm a normal kid."

She turned away from him, so he couldn't see her biting her lip. Jordan couldn't lie if her life depended on it. Her dad had used to say she bit her lip when she was lying, because if she didn't, her mouth would just blurt out the truth of its own volition.

"You're not normal," he said his voice gaining in volume.

"Shhh, please be quiet," she hissed.

"Then admit it," he said even louder unable or unwilling to contain himself.

"Admit what?"

"That you're a superhero!" he exclaimed.

"Superheroes aren't real. I don't know what I am."

"Don't worry I won't tell anyone," he said putting a finger to his lips, "I can be your sidekick. I know what to do. I have lots of comics."

Jordan rubbed the space between her eyes trying to contain her growing anxiety. She couldn't afford another incident in a public venue, she already felt like the main attraction in the freak show; the last thing she needed was to become a lab experiment on top of that.

"You're right I'm a superhero, but right now I'm off duty. There aren't any villains in Lancet Falls, so no need for a sidekick," she said in an effort to placate him.

"I don't believe you! There's got to be a reason you're here. Superheroes don't come to Idaho unless something is going on. Heroes are only ever in big cities, so there must be something special happening. Let me help!" he said.

Derek's eyes glowed with unbridled enthusiasm, and Jordan found she wanted to tell him what he wanted to hear. Anything to keep him around; Even if he only wants to be around me because I'm different. No matter what she wanted, Jordan knew a friendship based on a lie was doomed to fail.

"I don't need your help. I'm just fine on my own." she said.

Resisting the urge to bite her lip, Jordan turned her back on Derek and strode towards the parking lot. The look on his face had been akin to the look on a child's face when he is told there is no Santa Claus. As if on cue, her mother's powder blue Ford Focus appeared in the distance. Jordan felt her pace increasing at the sound of Derek following her.

"I'm coming with you! I'll prove you wrong!" he shouted behind her.

Jordan forced back a smile. "That's crazy! What would your parents think?"

"Trust me, they won't even know I'm gone!" he said bounding past Jordan towards her mother's waiting car.

"Don't repeat anything we talked about! Especially to adults!" she called after him.

Without introduction, he opened the passenger side door of Delilah's car and hopped inside. Shaking her head, Jordan slid into the backseat trying to gauge her mother's reaction to the day's events. She didn't know what she had expected but it wasn't this. The woman seated in the driver's seat was not the person that had dropped Jordan off at school today. Regardless of situation, the corners of her mouth would be tilted a fraction of a degree upward. Instead of her tired smile, she just looked tired. The bright orbs of her eyes, known for their constant ability to pick up even the most minute detail, now dull marbles sunk into her face. It looks like she hasn't slept for days.

A flicker of irritation crossed her face, before she eased the vehicle into motion. Jordan drummed her fingers against the worn out knees of her jeans waiting for her rebuke she was sure to receive. The silence spanned with Jordan's anxiety increasing by the second.

"Holy smokes! What happened to this door?" Derek shouted.

Without acknowledging the boy's exclamation, her mom glanced at her through the rear-view mirror. "Jordan, who's your friend?"

"My name's Derek Spencer. It's super cool to meet you!" he said extending his hand, "Oops, sorry you're driving!"

She managed a weak smile, "Well, it's nice to meet you Derek. My daughter didn't tell me she had any friends."

"It's because we aren't friends. We are just working on a project for school," Jordan chimed in.

"We're going to be friends though!" he added.

"Regardless, I'm glad she is getting out of her shell. That girl spends too much time with her nose in those books and not enough time being a kid," Delilah said before letting out a massive yawn, "I don't know what's come over me. I'm so tired."

"My mom says that when it starts to get cold, everyone gets a little sick," Derek replied.

As the conversation had wound on, the haggard mask of exhaustion lost ground to the force of Derek's unbridled optimism. At his last words, Delilah emitted a wheezing sound out of her throat that Jordan realized must be a laugh, "You know, that must be it."

Derek's animated chattering juxtaposed with her mother's tired but amused interest was peaceful background noise as Jordan watched the houses pass by. She'd seen these houses numerous times, but she hadn't ever truly looked at them for what they were. Before, they'd been dreary, muted structures that couldn't hold a candle to the frenetic energy of the city, but now, she noticed the beauty of them. These weren't houses that people lived in, because they were conveniently close to their jobs, these were homes. Inflatable pools, plastic flamingos nesting in yards, and countless other little things that revealed the character of those within. Maybe Idaho isn't so bad. She may have melted a door, gotten kicked out of class, and defaced school property, but she couldn't help but smile. For better or worse, Jordan had made two friends, even if one of them was under false pretenses. She had hope, it wasn't a lot, but it was something.

Before she knew it, their eggshell white, lone duplex loomed in the distance. However, the neighbor's characteristic, pitted with rust, yellow Geo was noticeably absent. Albert. The lack of something fundamental to the scenery of their house jogged the events of that morning loose; waking up on her floor, the dead bird, Albert, the charred wall. It's all connected she thought with a jolt. An all encompassing violet light flooded her mind, and she remembered her dream. It wasn't a dream. The only dream was that I'll ever be normal.

The application of brakes jarred Jordan forwards against her seatbelt. Her mother had almost driven by their house. Without breaking stride in her conversation with Derek, she corrected the mistake, and parked the car. Her eyes darted to the rear-view mirror. She was waiting to see if Jordan noticed the mistake. At Jordan's silence, she shut down the engine and addressed the both of them.

"I hope the two of you have fun working on your project. I'm going to go take a nap, I'm just so tired. It was lovely to meet you Derek. Jordan, there's pizza in the freezer, and don't think you're off the hook for what happened at school today. I love you," she said leaning over the middle console to give Jordan a kiss on the forehead.

Delilah Bryant released another long yawn and headed inside. The kids waited for her to disappear into the house before they uttered a word. Jordan chose the next thing she said with care.

"I think you might be right."

"I know I'm right!" he beamed, "About what?"

"Something is going on here, something bad. I feel it. It's time to stop playing pretend. You need to leave."

"Who's playing pretend? I know what I signed up for. I'm going to be your fearless sidekick, and if you're not okay with that, I'll just blab your secret to everyone," he said sticking out his tongue.

Jordan opened her mouth to speak, but held herself back. The part of her that didn't want Derek's help was diminishing at a breakneck pace. She knew that she was being selfish, but the thought of that dead bird and Albert's unmoving body scared her. When push came to shove, she knew that she couldn't do this alone, and the last thing her mom needed was to be involved in this mess. Jordan had screwed up her life enough.

Holding up her hand in a calming gesture, Jordan said, "Fine, you can help, but no more saying you're my sidekick."

He winked at her with that big, goofy grin, "Aye aye captain!"

A giggle escaped from Jordan's lips at his antics. Before they knew it, that one little laugh broke down the walls between them as they erupted in laughter. The type of laughter only children are capable of; laughter so potent that the world's woes get washed away in the face of it.

Wiping tears from her eyes, the pair exited the vehicle, unprepared for the scene that lay in wait. The dead bird still remained on a corner of the lawn, but not all of it. Between this morning and now, something had ripped open the little birdie's chest cavity. To Jordan, it reminded her of the chest spiders in that Alien movie her dad used to watch. A discarded bicycle and a bottle of clear liquid that turned out to be alcohol had been left abandoned in the grass. To top off the nightmare fodder, large chunks of Earth had been gouged out of their yard. It was moments like these that Jordan regretted her active imagination. It would be hard to sleep imagining the creature that did that to her front lawn.

Throughout this entire process, Derek ran back and forth between the gouges in the Earth and the disemboweled bird. "This is better than I thought! We're going to hunt down a monster!" he exclaimed with glee.

"I don't think it would be quite so awesome if we ended up like that bird," she said.

"We're the good guys. Stuff like that never happens to the good guys. Haven't you ever read a comic book?" he said shaking his head.

"As a matter of fact, I haven't," she said, "Now, wait here. I need a lookout while I go check something inside."

"You got it boss!" he said offering a crisp salute.

Jordan entered the house with a heavy feeling in the pit of her stomach. She knew what she was going to find. Albert is gone. With a concentrated effort, she tried to keep the image of Albert gutted like that bird out of her mind. What she found was nothing out of the ordinary. Her mother had collapsed on the living room couch, and her own bedroom looked normal except the bag of dog treats she kept on her dresser was now on the floor. And no Albert.

She didn't want to waste any time. If he wasn't in her room, then he was out there somewhere. Even if he was dead, she needed to know what happened. The creature that had gouged out her yard had to have left more tracks. The only course of action left open to them was to follow them and see what they found. And hope it won't rip us open.

Jordan relayed the plan to Derek and he responded with his typical exuberance. Jordan deduced a beast of that nature, wouldn't go towards town, so it must have run off into the field towards that abandoned drive-in. The two didn't have to travel far before they found another animal carcass, but this time a rabbit was the victim. Its sightless eyes stared at Jordan with an almost questioning look. Why didn't you save me?

The sea of yellow, untrimmed grass tickled at Jordan's ankles as they trudged onward. The frequency of dead animals increased the closer they got to the drive-in. Even more disturbing, some of the animals weren't just mutilated. They'd been changed. The pair ran across a rabbit with an extra eye affixed to the tip of both of its ears, and a lizard with feathers protruding from random parts of its body. With each passing corpse, Derek drew closer to her until he was walking in her shadow. No exchange of words took place; no words would do justice to the situation.

The entire walk passed by without incident, and the fenced enclosure of the drive-in lay out before them. Nothing looked out of the ordinary, but something inside Jordan stirred. The residue of something powerful hung in the air, and whatever was inside of her was responding. This is it.

She scrambled over the fence, and waited for Derek on the other side. He stood immobile on the opposite side, eyes wide. "My mom will kill me if I rip these jeans. This is my last pair." he said shifting his weight back and forth.

"Oh come on, don't tell me you're scared now," Jordan smirked.

"Scared? Heck no! I was just trying to be considerate of my clothing thank you very much!" he said before scurrying up the fence.

The sound of tearing fabric accompanied his descent. "Aww shucks! I KNEW this was going to happen!"

"You'll be okay. Let's get this over with. This place is already giving me the creeps." she said in a hushed tone.

"Why are you whispering?" he replied.

She thought about it for a second, "I'm not quite sure. Follow me," she said motioning towards the dilapidated building in the back of the lot.

The picked their way through the open expanse with caution, wary of some unseen predator that could pounce at any moment. She could feel his breath on her neck again; his breathing rapid and shallow. His anxiety had the reverse effect on her. It gave her strength knowing that someone needed her. She quickened her pace ready to face whatever waited for them within. Jordan looked over her shoulder to see if Derek was ready, and the look was returned with a solemn nod.

Jordan twisted the knob and applied gentle pressure to the door trying to get a glimpse of of what lay in wait. The tension drained from the air when the contents of the room were revealed. The place looked like it had been hit by a miniature tornado. Discarded T-shirts, jeans, and empty bottles of alcohol were haphazardly strewn across the floor. A stench hung in the air that reminded Jordan of a gym locker room. The two turned over the entire room trying to find any indication of something abnormal, but all they found were superhuman feats of uncleanliness and a hole in the wall, exposing the room to the world outside.

Everything pointed to this place. How could I be wrong?

"I guess I was wrong," she said hanging her head, "Let's go."

"Wait a minute, I think I found something," he said.

There was an old machine in the far corner of the room with a tipped over chair beside it. Derek plucked an object from the top of the machine and brought it to Jordan. He was holding a hat.

She shook her head in exasperation, "Have you never seen a hat before?'

"No! Just look at it! Have you ever seen a color like this?"

As a matter of fact, she had. It had been streaming through her bedroom window the night before. It looked like an average black fedora that had a strip of fabric encircling it. A strip of fabric that seemed to effervesce a color that Jordan couldn't place, but could only describe as violet. The pair stared at the strange piece of headwear, that could only be described as out of this world, in wonder.

After an interminable amount of time had passed, Jordan said, "I think this is all we're going to find here."

"But it's a good start!" he said revitalized by their discovery.

As the two exited the facility, an ear-splitting sound rang through the air. If she didn't know any better, Jordan would've said it sounded like the cawing of a crow, but a crow amplified by a stadium's worth of megaphones. The kids cupped their hands over their ears and looked toward the source of the sound. Perched on top of the screen was a creature that resembled a bird, but a bird jacked up four times larger than anything she'd ever seen before. It was covered in glossy feathers black as night. Scaly legs ended in wicked looking claws that looked like they could lift a cow with ease. The worst part was its beak or rather what was inside its beak. A long, thin object swathed in denim and tipped with a Nike shoe hung out of its beak, like it had just scooped a worm out of the ground. Its beady eyes scanned the horizon looking past Jordan and Derek.

Spotting something that neither of them could see, it lifted into the air. Gusts of air were almost visible at this massive show of power. Upon takeoff, they realized something else. It had two pairs of wings that propelled it faster than any natural creature they had seen. The two looked on in awe at this magnificently, horrid creature as its form diminished on the horizon.

"What's going on?" Derek asked in wonder.

"I don't know, but we're going to find out."

SaintCole here,

Thank you so much for reading this far! This is Jordan's last chapter in the Results arc. We probably won't be hearing from her in awhile, but I feel like this chapter sets up what role she will play as the story progresses.

Friendly reminder, you don't have to vote, but it'd be a lot cooler if you did!

I'm really interested to hear what your thoughts are at this point in the story. Where do you think it's going? Any theories as to what is going on? Let me know in the comments below. I'd love to talk to you guys.