Heaven.

"Jaylin." I close my eyes and lean against the headrest, silently begging the damn thing to swallow me whole. Anything can happen if you want it badly enough. "I don't know if you're aware of this, but kidnapping is illegal." 

A series of crunches punctuates my words from the backseat. There's enough pressure in my head to pop my eyes out of their sockets, so I don't turn back to look at the girl I helped rescue. Instead, I grit my teeth and glare ahead. I know she's back there and I know Jaylin has to turn around and plop her right back where she found the girl. That's all I want to think about, right now, and if I try to tackle anything more serious, my head will explode.

"I'm not kidnapping her," Jaylin says. I crack an eye open just to roll it at her. She lifts hers and stares intently through the dirty windshield, her shoulders stiff and her fingers gripped perfectly at eight and four o'clock. Jaylin may be a kidnapper, a thief, and a manipulative, psychopathic witch, but the kid can drive. The roads grow bumpier as we head deeper into country territory, the trees taller and the air sweeter, smelling sharply of peaches and evergreen. Jay cranes her head, her tousled brown hair blowing in perfect little ringlets down her shoulders. It isn't even an illusion. She really looks this good driving a stolen van on a rescue mission. If only I were so lucky.

I stumble for words. "Y-Yeah, you are. She's in the back and—"

"Kid?" Jaylin asks, her voice pitched so high she sounds like a cartoon girl. "Am I kidnapping you?"

"Nope." The superhero girl snaps the 'p' like she's popping bubble gum. "I wanna know what you guys are doing."

I sigh, and as soon as I do, I decide I don't like that. I'm supposed to be an arguer, not someone who sighs in the face of evil. But I guess I'm going to have to deal with that, letting a supervillain take the wheel, figuratively and literally. I'm doing things Jaylin's way, apparently, but that doesn't mean I have to like it. 

Jaylin shoots me a look out of the corner of those wide, innocent eyes, a smirk drawing up on the edges of her pink lips. My fists ball instinctively, itching to be thrown. Trees and neon signs fly past the windows, my legs jerky and toes squirming in my sneakers. "Told ya," she says, glancing back at the road. "You ought to trust me more."

I raise my voice. "You indirectly killed me." Does it still hurt to talk? Absolutely. Each word squeezed through my stinging throat brings on a shock of pain. Jaylin keeps up her steady smirk. She knows it hurts. A puff of air escapes my lips. "No thanks. You don't get my trust." I have to be economical with my word choice.

"Hmph." The van jerks as she pulls sharply onto a shoulder. My head slams against the window. I yelp. "Whoops. Sorry, princess." She laughs, a sound so reserved and bubbly it only makes the pain burn that much more.

Save your words, Hev. Save them for your next fight with this bit—

"You guys don't seem to like each other very much," the girl says. Jaylin chuckles as I dig my nails into my palm. The front of the van feels claustrophobic, my knees too close to the dash, the seatbelt much more like a rope keeping me tied into this death trap over a safety measure. I shrug and hope the girl sees. 

"I just love Hevvy-Hev," Jay squeals. She takes a hand off the steering wheel and squeezes my shoulder. I flinch. "We're the best of friends, aren't we, Heaven?"

There's something about her saying my name, her even touching me, that makes me want to punch her. Instead, I stare ahead. Just ahead, as the stars trickle through the thin canopy of early spring trees. The windows still rolled down, I hang my fingers over the edge, hoping for just a taste, just a hint of the joy spring is supposed to give. This used to be my favorite time of year, with the green and the sun and the April Birthday. But now, how can I care? "Right, Heaven?"

I answer her with silence. Jaylin taps her fingers on the steering wheel, turning onto a scraggly, loose-gravel road. I glance out, the colors of late evening growing sharper in the sky, purple and pink and black all dripping into each other, and I can't help but think of the grounding I'm going to get when I come home. If I come home. I almost crack a smile. Funny what the mind chooses to dwell on at the worst times.

"Heaven," the girl mutters my name under her breath, whispering it almost reverently. An icy prickle runs down my neck and I clutch my forehead, looking out the windshield through my fingers. Jaylin squeezes a little harder, digging her fingertips into sensitive pressure points between my shoulder bone. Super-strength. I can't find the energy—or strength—to pull away. So this is how the non-weirdos feel on a regular basis.

It sucks.

"Oh, yes, Heaven." Jaylin drops my shoulder and tugs my cheek, chubbing me so hard she has to be trying to rip my face in two. "Not very heavenly really, but cute as a button." 

My fists curl up again. "Leave me alone." I stare out the window, listening to the crunch of gravel under the tires and watching the forest thicken. We zoom by a 'Deer crossing' sign and I focus hard on it, something to ignore Jaylin with. Angel called me a maniac for attacking the villain, and though that feels like it happened ages ago, I'll try not to be violent with her. For him. Him and Gats, they're the only reasons I haven't started swinging. My poor friends.

"Um," the girl says, "Heaven?" I lift my head up and glance back. The little superhero's brilliant green eyes meet mine, and she smiles weakly. "Thanks."

The pressure eases a little from my head. I shove the villain's hand off my cheek and tip my head into a bow Angel would consider 'gentlemanly.' My heart twists up in my chest at the thought. "At your service."

"Of course, she is!" Jaylin jabs her elbow into my bruised ribs. I yelp. "Heaven's at everyone's service. She's a superhero. You might even know her old alter-ego, kiddo, Gal—"

"JAYLIN!" The voice-conservation experiment, yeah? That fails. I scream and tears spring to my eyes. Jaylin slaps her hand over my mouth. I half-lunge across the seat to throttle her, but she's driving. So instead I grab for her jaw, to shut her up. I kept my identity a secret from my best friends for three years and then this stupid supervillain comes along and ruins everything. As I grab for her, she digs her fingers into my jaw and slams my head back against the headrest.My body slumps and I melt into the seat. The villain pats me on the head. 

"Go to sleep, hero."

"Huh?" the girl asks.

"Galaxy," Jay giggles. I raise my head again and she slams it back down. My consciousness nearly drips, and I see the world in a lazy haze. I'm angry about something. What am I angry about? "Galaxy. She's Galaxy."

The girl laughs.

"No, seriously, she is. Died. Lost her powers cause her brother bought some super-enhanced drugs off a Snare man. Tragic."

"No, seriously. Galaxy? Her? B-But she's so short."

"What?" Jaylin snaps. "Are you saying short people can't be supers?"

"N-no, it's just that she looked taller in all the—"

"Guys!" I don't know how I see it, my skull pounding and my eyes narrowed into tired slits, but I do. The animal lumbers in the serpentine road, headlights flashing off its eyes. Twenty, thirty feet ahead. Its hide shimmers, antlers crooked at us. Jaylin's looking over her shoulder, arguing with the girl. I lunge for the driver's side of the dashboard, the seat-belt straining at my shoulders, and snatch the steering wheel.

Jaylin hisses, looks up, and screams.

So this is my confession—I hate driving. It scares me. And I guess that's funny, coming from someone who's supposed to be fearless, but cars are big machines that can do serious damage at the hand of the wrong driver. Just one wrong move and someone might die. And the extra-gory, extra-bloody PSAs shown in Driver's Ed don't help.

But right now, both hands on the steering wheel and foot ground on a pedal I can't quite think up the name of, I'm in control. For the first time in a while. I jerk the wheel and the van swerves to the side. The girl in the back screams, too. The tires don't catch the road and though I pump the brake, the back of the vehicle fishtails out. We go spinning, spinning, spinning until I give up and lift my foot off the pedal. Trees blur by faster and faster. I can't believe it. I go through all this to get my guys back just to find myself in a freaking car accident.

"Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Oh, my God." Hysterical Jay is the only perk. I can only think up three things to do: pray and pump the brakes, pray and relax so I won't shatter every bone in my body when we crash, or pray and try to steer the van back to stability.

All of the above are probably gonna end up with the three of us dead, except maybe Jay, and she cannot be milling about while I'm stuck lying there cold and blank-faced in a stupid metal drawer. Jaylin fights me, clawing at my arm, grabbing at the steering wheel, until I can actually feel her fingernails in my skin. The road curls into an indent and my heart flutters. One chance.

I shove Jaylin back and steer us into a ditch.