Name: Clare
Story: Moonsisters
Colors: Moonlight 1, liminal; Sulphur 9, fallen
Supplies and Materials: Tapestry, feathers (Your character isn't strong enough.), acrylic (breaking a bone)
Word Count: 2,799
Rating: PG-13
Warnings: injuries, not too graphically described
Notes: This actually turned out to be a little happier than I expected.

“See?” said Charlotte. “From up here you can see everything, and they can’t see us.”

Ivy was not entirely convinced of that, but she climbed up after Charlotte anyway. Laura and Angel were right behind them. And once she’d inched out on the roof to sit next to Charlotte, she had to admit it was pretty cool. The whole schoolyard was stretched out before them, and more besides that. It was a little dizzying if she looked straight down, but she didn’t really want to do that anyway. From here she could just barely see the park.

“Jeez,” said Laura, clutching Ivy’s arm as she sat down beside her. “How did I let you guys talk me into this?”

“We didn’t have to,” said Angel. She took the last spot beside Laura. “You said you would come.”

“I should not have said that.” Laura’s grip tightened on Ivy’s arm. When Ivy looked at her, she saw that her friend’s eyes were squeezed shut.

“Come on,” said Charlotte. “It’s not so bad. It’s not like we’re on the roof.”

“The roof might be better,” said Laura. “At least it’s flat. We wouldn’t be sitting on a ledge with our legs swinging out in the middle of the air.”

“You can go back in,” said Charlotte.

“And squeeze my way around Angel? I don’t think so. I’m just going to sit here and hold on to Ivy. Ivy is solid.”

“If you fall, you can always catch yourself,” said Charlotte.

Ivy had to smile at Laura’s faith in her, but she could tell Charlotte was getting annoyed, so she decided to change the subject. “How did you find this place, anyway? Is that service door that you brought us through?”

“Yeah.” Charlotte waved negligently to the door that Angel was holding just ajar, as though afraid it would lock on them. “I overheard the janitor thinking that he wasn’t going to bother locking this door because you couldn’t see it anyway. So of course I had to find the door and see where it went. I guess he probably washes the third-floor windows from here.”

“There must be one on every floor,” said Angel. “Maybe we should look for one on the second floor.”

“Then people would be able to see us,” said Charlotte.

“Are you sure they can’t now?” Ivy asked. She was looking down at the people below, who were playing catch with a football, gathering in clusters in the shaded corners of the schoolyard, and once in a while leaving to go wait for buses or get into cars. School had let out about twenty minutes ago, but a few seconds ago, someone had looked up at them--someone with green eyes that glinted in the light. At least, Ivy had a strong feeling that the person had been looking at them.

“Of course they can’t,” said Charlotte. “I can hear them, remember?”

“Can you really hear all of them that clearly?” asked Laura. “Isn’t it hard to pick out the individual minds?”

“Well, yeah,” Charlotte admitted. “But no one is thinking ‘holy shit, there are people up on a ledge there,’ so I’m pretty sure we’re safe.”

“So you’ve figured out how to block out our minds when you want to?” Angel asked.

“Oh, yeah!” Charlotte grinned. “I just had to reconfigure my shields. Ever since I was a kid I’ve had to block out other people’s thoughts, because otherwise it just gets completely overwhelming. So I figured out how to put up walls around my mind.” She touched her necklace. “This helps, of course. And I can muffle the minds a lot if I take it off, but then I can’t control what I do and don’t get to hear, or block it out all the way. That’s what I do most of the time.”

“But you used to think that you just couldn’t block me out at all,” said Angel.

“Right,” said Charlotte. “Until we met the two of you and I realized it wasn’t just that I know Angel so well I can guess what she’s going to think most of the time.”

“That must have been very frustrating for both of you,” said Ivy. “You couldn’t hide anything from Charlotte.”

“Well, it’s not like I wanted to hide anything anyway,” said Angel. “Not from Charlotte.”

“Well, just in case I ever have something I want to keep secret,” Ivy said, looking at Charlotte, “make sure you don’t go into my head unless I want you too.”

Charlotte shook her head and held up her hands in surrender. “I never would. I hate that. It’s weird hearing your friends’ thoughts, especially if you’re having a conversation, so it’s like an echo. It’s hard enough to talk while listening to someone else.”

“But you’re talking to us while listening to the thoughts of the people in the schoolyard,” said Laura. “Aren’t you?”

“I’m not really listening,” Charlotte said. “It’s like if you were at a restaurant and the family at the next table was having a conversation. You could listen to them, or you could tune them out, but because you could actually hear them the whole time, they could get your attention again. Like if there was a lull in your own conversation, or they happened to say your name, or say something else you find interesting.”

“So if you heard your name in the thoughts of one of the people down there, or if they thought about the weird people sitting on a ledge, then you would hear it, but otherwise you don’t pay attention?” Angel said.

“Exactly,” said Charlotte.

“That makes sense,” said Laura. “Interesting.” She finally managed to open her eyes, though she was still clutching Ivy’s arm. “But you can hear their thoughts from much farther away than we can hear them talking.”

Ivy nodded in agreement. She could hear shrieks of laughter and shouts from the boys tossing the ball every once in a while, but she definitely couldn’t make out any conversation or even tell who was who--which, evidently, Charlotte could.

“Right,” said Charlotte. “That seems to be how it works: I can hear what people are thinking instead of what they are just saying, and while it is limited by distance, it goes a lot further than hearing.”

A breeze rippled their hair and Angel’s skirt. Laura shivered, closed her eyes, and opened them again. “Okay, I’m convinced that no one can see us. But this is still awful. I’m going back inside.” She started to shift closer to the door, though she was still holding Ivy’s arm.

“Hang on,” said Angel. “I’ll hold the door for you. I don’t want you to try to climb over me.”

“Oh, don’t be ridiculous,” said Charlotte. She stood up on the ledge. Angel gasped and Laura squeezed her eyes shut again.

Ivy held out her hand. “Don’t do that, Charlotte. It isn’t safe.”

“It’s perfectly fine,” said Charlotte, rolling her eyes. She turned and grabbed the ledge of the window above them, pulling herself up.

“Charlotte!” Angel cried. “What if there’s someone in that classroom?”

“It’s empty,” said Charlotte. “I just want to show Laura that it’s safe.”

Ivy kept her hand out in case Charlotte should need her support, but glanced back down at the schoolyard. No faces seemed to be pointed up at them, but there was that odd flash of green... “Get down, Charlotte,” she said. “I think someone’s seen us.”

“They haven’t,” she said. She finally managed to pull herself up so she was sitting on the windowsill--a much narrower perch than the ledge.

“Charlotte, please don’t do whatever you’re doing,” Laura begged. “I can’t even see you! You’re not convincing me of anything!”

“I’m just on the windowsill,” said Charlotte.

“Stop it, Charlotte,” said Angel. “You’re not--aieee!”

Ivy turned just in time to see Angel’s hand and the ends of her long braids flying up. She jumped to her feet, suddenly heedless of the danger. “Laura! Catch her!”

“Oh my god!” cried Laura. “I can’t--I--I think I helped!” She had finally opened her eyes all the way and was staring down at Angel where she had hit the pavement.

Now the people below definitely knew they were up there. A wide circle was forming around Angel, and many faces were turning up toward them. Ivy felt perfectly calm, though she was pretty sure that was just shock. “Laura, can you get me down there?”

“She’s okay,” Charlotte said in a strained voice. “I mean, she’s in a lot of pain, I think she’s broken something. Her thoughts are disjointed. But she isn’t unconscious, so that’s good.”

“Probably,” said Ivy. “Laura! Can you move me down there quickly?”

“I--I--I don’t think so,” Laura said at last. “I’m sorry. I’ve never moved a person more than a few inches. I should--I should practice more... I should have practiced. I should practice moving the three of you--”

“Get inside,” Ivy said, pushing Laura toward the door. “I have to get down there as fast as possible.”

“Someone’s calling an ambulance,” said Charlotte.

“I’m faster,” said Ivy. “Or I should be. Come on, Laura.”

Laura whimpered and inched herself toward the door. Ivy leaned over her to push it open. Laura finally got through it and inside, and Ivy jumped past her, taking off running down the hallway and to the stairs.

It seemed to take forever and she was breathing heavily and had a stitch in her side, but she made it down to the schoolyard. Unfortunately, there was still a crowd between her and Angel. “Move!” she tried to bark, but she was too out of breath—only one person heard her. He looked back over his shoulder, widened his eyes, and got out of her way, but that didn’t make much dent in the crowd.

Eventually she just shouldered her way through. Once people saw who she was they moved out of the way—she wasn’t sure whether it was because they knew she was Angel’s friend or whether they were just scared of her, but if it was the latter, for the first time she was really glad it was true.

Finally she was beside Angel, and she dropped to her knees, glad to see her friend’s chest rising and falling, even if it was a little fast. She put her hand on Angel’s forehead to ground them both. She took a brief moment to hope that her skirt wasn’t showing her underwear, but didn’t bother to check. Instead, she closed her eyes and used her inner eye to look at what was wrong with Angel.

She winced. It looked pretty bad. Several ribs were broken, and it looked dangerous the way they were pointing at her lungs—but Ivy couldn’t really tell. She couldn’t see the inside of the body the way she could see the inside of a frog when she dissected it. It was just ideas, impressions. The broken bones were sharp and jagged, so they were clear.

It wasn’t just the ribs—Angel’s arm was broken in at least two places and her leg in one. The kneecap might have been shattered. All of it was causing Angel a lot of pain. Ivy gritted her teeth and concentrated. It didn’t matter that there were people all around staring at them. It didn’t matter that an ambulance was on its way. She had to help her friend.

She focused her mind on all the places that were really causing Angel pain—the leg, the arm, and the ribs. Her inner vision narrowed, and everything grew red around them. Some things she could heal with a thought, or even less than that, but this was far worse. She had to help Angel. She couldn’t hear thoughts like Charlotte could, but she knew her friend was screaming for help.

She focused harder. The redness pulsed. Then suddenly there was a spike of pain in her head. A grunt of pain tore itself out of her throat, and she jerked backward, pulling her arm off of Angel. Angel twitched and whimpered, squeezing her eyes shut. Ivy stared down at her in horror. She hadn’t healed the breaks—not even halfway. She wasn’t strong enough.

“Ivy? Are you okay? Don’t hurt yourself too!” It was Laura. She and Charlotte were just behind Ivy. Ivy hadn’t even heard them come up, she’d been concentrating so hard.

And she barely registered their presence now—she had to get back to healing Angel. She couldn’t leave her friend lying there in pain. She just needed more strength.

A warm, strong hand came down on her shoulder and squeezed. “Laura,” commanded Charlotte. “Take her other shoulder.”

She felt Laura’s much tinier hand come down on her other shoulder. Now she reached out to put her hand on Angel’s shoulder again. With the four of them touching each other, she could feel the energy flowing through them—and it was all going toward Angel, because she had the least. Ivy took a deep breath and dove back in.

She didn’t hear or feel anything going on around her until finally she heard Charlotte say, “Ivy. The EMTs are here.” Her eyes jerked open and she let go of Angel’s forehead as though burned. The EMTs were pushing their way through the crowd and they looked angry. Ivy knew that even if they understood her power, they wouldn’t want her touching Angel, so she stood up quickly to back away. She wavered on her feet and had to grab onto Charlotte to keep her balance.

“You three are her friends?” one of the men asked brusquely as they started checking over Angel. “What happened here?”

“She, uh, she fell,” said Laura.

Charlotte swallowed hard. “We were sitting on a ledge up there.” She pointed. “I thought it was safe. I really thought…”

“Will she be okay?” Ivy asked, interrupting Charlotte so she didn’t keep recriminating herself. She was pretty sure Angel would be fine, but she had no idea if she would have seen brain damage or internal bleeding.

“Her head’s fine,” said the other EMT. “Just a few broken bones. Not too bad for a fall from a height.”

Ivy squeezed Laura’s shoulder, knowing it was due to her intervention that Angel’s head was fine.

“Can we come with her to the hospital?” Charlotte asked. “Her mom is at work, she’ll have her phone off… oh—but she’s a nurse. Maybe she’ll be there already. What hospital will you take her to?”

“Nearest is Sacred Heart,” said the first EMT. “That where her mom works?”

“Yeah,” said Charlotte. “Nurse Lashonda Jackson.”

“I know her,” he said. “Good lady. We’ll find her.” They’d gotten Angel onto a stretcher quickly and efficiently, and probably given her some painkiller; she didn’t seem so distressed anymore, and was laying still. Ivy wanted to check on her with her inner vision, but she was still so exhausted that she didn’t think it would be a good idea.

“You three stay here,” said the other EMt. “Or better yet, go home. She’ll be fine.”

“We can call her mom in a few hours,” said Laura. “She’ll give us an update.”

They followed the stretcher back through the crowd—dispersing now—and watched them load Angel into an ambulance and drive off, sirens blaring. Ivy could feel her limbs shaking. Then she realized that it was actually Charlotte crying.

“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you,” Charlotte said miserably. “You were right, Laura. It wasn’t safe up there.”

“It’s not your fault,” said Laura sternly, coming around Ivy to hug Charlotte. “If it was just because it was unsafe, you’re the one who would have fallen. Angel was solid. It was just… just some freak accident.”

Accident? Ivy wasn’t so sure. She turned toward the crowd and caught that glint of green eyes again—some other student, staring at them for a moment. But then she turned away and whispered to one of her friends, and Ivy was suddenly unsure that she’d been looking at them at all. It might not have even been the same eyes she thought she’d seen before. Maybe she’d never been looking at them at all; it was just that her eyes were so bright green they caught the light.

Either way, it wasn’t worth mentioning it to the others. Much as she appreciated Charlotte having read her mind while she was so worn out from healing Angel that she couldn’t speak, she was glad Charlotte had stopped now. She straightened her back and took firmer hold of Charlotte’s arm. “Let’s go to your house,” she said. “Then we’ll see Angel when they bring her home. She’ll be fine. I promise.”