Sunday morning. Meg woke up staring at Alden's ceiling yet again. He'd still woken her up again last night, around two in the morning. She'd hoped they'd gotten past it, but apparently not. So when he came downstairs, looking miserable, she poured him a bowl of cereal without a word. They ate in silence, Meg browsing through an increasingly-irritating social feed and Alden staring at his bowl without lifting a finger.

Hailey had never checked in, not even once. Meg wondered if she should text her, remind her that Alden could do with some company. Hailey should have known that though, right? She knew about taking care of people.

Meg was starting to have nightmares now too, though hers thankfully didn't wake her up in cold sweats screaming her lungs out. She dreamt she was running through a mansion of totally empty rooms, searching desperately for something she didn't even know, and every time she left a room it faded into black, until the entire mansion seemed to be disappearing around her.

She had it twice, both before and after Alden had woken her up, and though she wasn't one to read much into dreams, the meaning was painfully obvious.

Their parents were out at church, but both Alden and Meg had stopped going a few years back. Meg because she hated singing in public, and Alden (though he'd never tell his parents) because he didn't actually believe it anymore. She didn't really get how that had happened, but she knew that telling anyone wouldn't really do him any good. Their parents never made a big deal out of it, so it didn't affect them much at the end of the day.

So only a couple hours later, they found themselves right back in Alden's room, with Meg trying to finish the rest of her homework, and Alden reading an old favorite book. Meg probably could have gotten a lot more done, but her phone kept chirping at her with new posts to read, and she couldn't resist seeing what Kelly was up to.

She is just not letting this go, is she? Now that rumors were flying around of Hailey being sighted all over both Seattle and Tacoma (which Meg was pretty sure were fake), and acting as some kind of vigilante hero, people were chiming in on both sides of the argument. As usual, Kelly was critical.

Meg started typing a furious retort, careful to make sure it wasn't actually aimed at Kelly directly, but she hesitated. After what she'd heard from Alden, and rewatching both the building video and the clip of Hailey in Rallsburg, Meg wasn't so sure anymore. Hailey was still trying to do good, for sure, but Kelly wasn't totally wrong. She didn't need to be so harsh about it, but… she made some good points.

Not that Meg could tell her that.

Meg deleted the comment instead of posting it, and went back to her homework.

"That was angry, whatever it was. I feel sorry for the other girl," said Alden.

"Who says it was a girl?" Meg answered, almost automatically. She didn't bother to look up at him.

"If it were a guy you'd be trying to stay on his good side so you could ask him out."

"As if. I'd call out anyone on their bullshit, boy or girl."

"Don't swear."

"Like your bullshit," she snapped, spinning in the chair. To her surprise, Alden was on his feet, and had a backpack on. She kept going anyway, but she was already confused by his appearance. "When are you gonna see I'm not a little kid anymore? Who cares if I cuss a bit?"

"I do. I'm your big brother."

"Well thanks, bro, but I think I can handle my own vocabulary."

Alden shrugged. "It's up to you."

"Yeah it is." Meg set down her phone. "You seem better."

"I made a decision."

"Oh?"

"I'm not sitting around at home anymore. I'm gonna get out there."

"Mom and Dad'll be happy." Meg glanced at the window pointedly. "Where you gonna go?"

"I'm gonna go find her."

"Hailey?"

"No, the girl I met in Rallsburg."

Meg raised her eyebrows. "I thought she wasn't your girlfriend."

"Not in a million years. But she said something to me back there. That we were fated to run into each other."

"Oh please. That's a cheap pick-up line."

"She meant it. There were three of us in Rallsburg who kept running into each other, who had missing family members. Her and her dad, Natalie and her dad, and me and my…"

"Impossibly cool older sister," Meg supplied.

"Yeah, that one." Alden smiled. "She and I made a pretty good team for a while there. I think so, anyway. I think I can help her out, wherever she is. It's better than sitting around here doing nothing, but it's also not… anywhere near what I've been doing. It'll be safe."

"How are you gonna find her?"

"I have her number."

Meg laughed. "That's way too easy."

"No one picks up on the other end when I call. So I'm gonna go out to where I know she was headed last, find anyone who might have spotted a helicopter landing in the area, and follow the clues from there." He paused. "I won't be coming back home until I find her."

"Okay, that's a little harder." Meg glanced at her phone. "You want help? I'm pretty good at finding profiles online."

"Go for it, but I wouldn't be surprised if you don't find anything. She's not the social media type."

"Everyone's the social media type. Some people just hide it better." Meg grinned. "I'll find her, you'll see."

"You don't even know her name."

Oh. Duh. "Well, you gonna tell me?"

He winced. "No."

Meg grinned. "Uh-huh. Is Hailey gonna go with you?"

Alden hesitated. "...No. And you shouldn't tell her where I went, either."

"Why not?"

"Hailey doesn't really have the… finesse for this kind of thing."

"What?"

"She doesn't think all her plans through. She just leaps in with both feet whenever she can. Sometimes that works out great, and sometimes…" He shook his head.

Meg wanted to argue with him, shout that Hailey was perfect and they just didn't understand what she was doing, but between Kelly and Alden, and all the stuff she'd seen herself, she didn't feel quite so enamored anymore. She still thought Hailey meant well, but there was a gap. Hailey wasn't on top of a pedestal anymore.

She was human just like the rest of them. Just like Meg, but with a little bit extra on the side. A little bit—well, a lot, really—of magic.

It broke Meg's heart to realize it.

"I won't tell her," she promised. "Breaking up the dream team of Zack and Hailey's gonna hurt though. You guys were working together, weren't you?"

Alden shook his head. "After what happened, they're shutting everyone out. No more risks for a while. Not until we can deal with… what happened." He didn't want to say it, and Meg didn't make him. "I'll tell Hailey eventually, promise. But for now, we just won't say anything."

"I'm never gonna get to fly with her at this rate," Meg grumbled.

"I'll make sure you do."

Meg shrugged. "I bet I'm a way better flyer than you are."

"Probably. You're easier to carry."

"Hey!"

He smiled. "Cover for me with Mom and Dad?"

"Duh. You owe me even more big time though."

Alden grinned. "When I get back, I promise. I'll bring you a present better than you can imagine."

"I can imagine a lot, Zack."

"I'll beat it, trust me." He paused. "Also, don't call me Zack."

"What, you changing your name again?"

"No. Just Alden."

"I thought you didn't want to be 'just another Alden'."

He shrugged. "We already had part of our family disappear. I feel like I shouldn't be trying to take away more."

"Way to make it weird, bro."

"It's symbolic, all right?"

"Whatever." Meg got up and walked across the room. She threw her arms around him and hugged him tight for a second, then broke away. "Stay safe."

"You too."

"From what, paper cuts?" Meg plopped back onto the chair in front of his desk. "I'm totally using your desk while you're gone."

"Have at it."

"How are you gonna survive without me?"

"I dunno, I did pretty well for a while there. Eighteen years or so. It was touch and go for a bit but we made it."

It was so much better to hear him joking and teasing like a normal brother, but there was still an uneven, hollow tone to everything he said. She was trying to tease him right back, but she could tell he was still hurting. Meg wasn't sure if she should let him go in the state he was in, but she couldn't think of a good reason to try to keep him home either. He felt like he had to do this, and who was she to tell him not to?

"You still haven't slept more than a couple hours without waking up," she said quietly.

"...Yeah, I know."

"You aren't better yet."

"I know."

"You know this is all crazy right? That you're running out on an insane quest to find a girl you only knew for a week?"

He shrugged. "She's the reason this all started for me, so maybe she's the only way to end it. I dunno. But I'm gonna find her."

"You're crazy."

"Me and every other Awakened." He grinned. "She called me a hopeless romantic once. Guess it stuck."

"Well… good luck," Meg said awkwardly, not sure what else to say.

"Thanks." He picked up a duffel bag she hadn't seen before. He'd been packing and she hadn't even noticed. "I'll let you know where I am. Just… you know."

"Just in case," she finished. "I know."

"See you later, Meg."

Alden left. Meg watched him go from his bedroom window, as he walked down to the street and turned to the nearest bus stop. He'd catch it and ride the buses and trains all the way back to the bar in Tacoma, where he'd get his car. From there… who knew?

How the hell am I supposed to get my homework done now?

Meg sat back in the chair, thinking about everything. Her imaginary older sister, who was both the coolest and strongest person she knew, but also the nicest and funniest at the same time, and always made sure Meg never got overshadowed or overlooked. Someone she could actually talk to about her life and all the stuff she was going through. Someone who wouldn't judge her. That'd be nice to have. Alden was a great brother, but there were things she couldn't really talk to him about. He was a guy.

She thought about Hailey, who she realized she'd started trying to turn into an adoptive sister in a way. Hailey couldn't really be her sister though. She had so much going on, and even if they got along okay, they weren't really that much alike. Besides, Meg hadn't really needed her to talk to or anything. If anything Meg was the one listening to Hailey, and to Alden, and everyone else that buzzed through their house. Even Jessica "talked" to Meg more than Meg tried to communicate back.

Maybe Meg didn't really need a sister. Maybe she was the sister everyone else needed.

Figures I get the lame part of this deal.

If Alden had managed a revelation over the weekend, then apparently so had Meg. The argument with Kelly seemed so petty now, sniping at each other over the exploits of someone who wasn't even supposed to be alive. Her brother, and Hailey, and everyone else—they were all dealing with so many bigger things than that. People were trying to hunt down awakened and kill them. That was crazy. Not a girl jumping into a burning building and saving a few people. That was just typical reckless heroism.

Meg got out her laptop, browsed through the drive and deleted the live streams, both of them. She did the same on her phone, and cleared them off her cloud account too. She scrubbed it all as clean as she knew how.

A little burst of fame wasn't worth the damage those videos might cause, so Meg got rid of them. A bit of comfort wasn't worth Alden's pain, so she spent nights on his floor. A pat on the back from Hailey wasn't worth breaking Alden's trust and his recovery, so she'd lie to her idol about where he'd gone.

Everything was a trade-off, just like her economics homework said.

See, school really does teach you stuff!

Meg rolled her eyes at herself, then sat down and got back to work. She still had to finish it before the next day, or her parents would chew her out.

It was a bit too quiet though. A bit… uncomfortable. She turned on some music again, but it didn't help.

Meg thought about it for a minute. Then she turned off the music, picked up her homework and her textbooks, and carried them down the hall to the last room. The empty room.

She sat down in the corner, back up against the wall with a couple pillows from her room, and laid out her books on the floor. She leaned over and started working again, and suddenly it didn't seem so quiet anymore. Even though the room was silent besides her pencil scratching and the buttons on her calculator, and the only thing moving was the clouds in the sky through the window… it felt all right.

It happened a couple times. She could have sworn she saw something move out of the corner of her eye, but when she looked up, the room was as empty as always. Her parents weren't home, and they had the loudest front door and garage known to man, so she knew they weren't suddenly back either.

Meg shrugged and went back to her homework. She was just imagining things.

Probably.