Five people going on a road trip is a good number. Enough room in the RV where you aren't going to kill each other, people can switch off on the driving in reasonable shifts, and the conversation stays fresh. Everyone dragged their butts over to my house where we discussed where to drive the enormous behemoth, suitcases in tow. I promised them their cars would be safe out in the middle of nowhere after having a long talk with Lana about the repercussions of destroying other people's property in the 21st century. She already knows, of course, but unless I specifically hammer it into her engine she'll feign ignorance and smash whatever she can to pieces. I don't know what the hell she has against other vehicles.

“Okay guys, remember: since it's a two-week trip, the place we're visiting should be around a week away, maybe less if we want to go full tourist,” I began. I was still shocked so many of my coworkers wanted to blow vacation time on an RV trip. “So,” I grabbed a marker and started to write on a white-board I set up in the living room. “Ideas?”

“Maybe California,” Alice suggested. “It takes less than a week; we can visit a bunch of places on the way there, maybe even Vegas.” I wrote down the destination on the board.

“Asshole, did your handwriting miraculously improve or something?” Olivia snarled. I shut my eyes tight in annoyance and brushed her off. My handwriting was much better in my right hand, true. Everyone shuffled uncomfortably. My pal, Derrick, tilted his head and shot me a look. I just rolled my eyes and shook my head.

“Suggestions?” I prompted again.

“New Orleans? I was thinking we can go through Tennessee, go to Nashville for a few days and enjoy the music. Then we can chill and explore New Orleans for a little while. It's a great tourist spot, 'specially if you can get into the culture.”

I gave Veex a shrug. “Sure,” I said, writing the city underneath California.

“Niagara falls would be interesting,” Derrick added. “I've only been once as a kid. Does everyone have a passport, though? The best part is over the border.”

“Raise your hand if you have a passport,” I called out. All of the hands went up besides Olivia's.

“You can get one if you need to.” I snorted dismissively as I added Niagara Falls to the list. “Okay, anything else?” I waited a minute, but nobody added any suggestions to our pool. “Great. Let's vote. All in favor of California, raise your hands.” Olivia's hand popped up. “New Orleans,” I offered. No hands, a clear indicator that there was going to be a majority on the last option. “So, the rest of you want Niagara?”

“Yup,” Veex grinned. Derrick smiled nervously. Alice nodded her head.

As was typical, Olivia scowled. “So I'm just supposed to get my passport today?”

“Don't even pretend you don't have one,” Veex replied testily. We all brought ours as per the instructions Ciaran posted on Facebook. Yours is at home, I take it?”

“No,” she flushed red. “I don't have one.”

“Just sneak past the border,” Alice suggested. “Just fly above and mask yourself.”

Derrick now gave me an extraordinarily confused look. I winced and realized it was probably a horrible idea for him to go on vacation with a crew of people used to the preternatural. As my close friend, I'd already filled him in on a few points of the-world-hidden-in-plain-sight, but I didn't inform him that we'd be taking a trip with an esp.

“Olivia's an esp,” I said quickly to address his confusion.

“Oh,” he replied, turning a bit red.

“She's the only other super,” I added encouragingly. I saw him visibly relax at that.

“Cool. Okay. So you can, uh, fly?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Olivia gushed, seizing the opportunity to spin tales of her own greatness. “I can do most things I put my mind, to really. Some people might even call me a demi-god.”

“Get over yourself,” Veex, Alice and I all groaned together.

“You'll have plenty of time to jabber later,” I stated flatly. “For now, everyone pack yourselves into the RV.”

Like obedient little soldiers, the crew donned their bags and plopped them into the dated, but now dazzlingly clean, RV. Derrick gawked a bit when Olivia levitated her fifty billion bags in through the door, which was kind of funny. I usually refrain from using my abilities around normal people, even those with supernatural knowledge. When you use your abilities around non-supers, it just serves to emphasize your differences and give them inferiority complexes. Of course, that's probably item number one on Olivia's agenda. That’s beside the fact that only a moron would use his powers around someone with no knowledge of the supernatural.

After I was sure everything was packed up, I sat behind the wheel and pulled out. This was going to be some adventure.

The first few hours of the car ride were smothered in a barrage of complaints. The air conditioning, the bathroom, the apparent lack of soap, a fly buzzing around, stale food, all assaulting my ears.

“Olivia, please, why don't you drive,” I offered after a while.

“Drive?” She made it sound like a foreign concept.

“Yeah. It's not a question, it's a requirement and an expectation. If you don't wanna drive, we can drop you off at the nearest town and you can catch a taxi home.”

“Fine, then,” she sneered. “Driving this hunk of metal is a thousand times easier than half the things I do on a normal basis.” Alice and Veex ignored the entire exchange, absorbed in a game of War.

“Wait, what kinds of things can you do? Ciaran's boring and tells me about things but doesn't really elaborate.” Oh, Derrick, I wanted to cry out. You've opened up a can of worms.

“Oh ho ho,” Olivia smirked as she pulled the car off from the shoulder. “You all need to bring more regular people, this is just great. I hardly ever make contact with them.” I groaned and walked over to Alice and Veex's heated match.

Olivia went on and on about all of the amazing things she can do, espousing her superior abilities as a levitator, fielder (a person who creates and tears down fields of energy), and elementalist.

“So you can actually throw balls of fire, hover off the ground, and make yourself glow at the same time?”

“Yup, if I want to, I guess.”

“Your brain will probably explode first,” Veex chortled.

Olivia gave him a pointed look. “You wish.”

“Shit, you gotta do that for me sometime. You'd look like you belong in a movie.” Derrick huffed admiringly.

“Well, you know,” she replied ever-so-modestly. I turned just in time to catch her tossing a clumping of hair over her shoulder, the display as tacky as Christmas lights in February, or those tights/leggings now synonymous with Shakespeare that we actually wore during the middle ages. I always hated them, have no doubt.

“Don't let Olivia draw you in. It sounds cool but it's not really practical to be an elementalist. And it's neat to make forcefields and all, but they usually mess with your electronics and ruin them if you use them too often. Levitation is great but since you can't be seen doing it in public, has limited usages.” Olivia was messing with Derrick’s moldable mind; I had to stop it before he became too enthralled.

“So...” Derrick rubbed his jaw. “You're essentially telling me that magic is completely unsuited for the 21st century, right?”

I snorted. “It's been practically useless since the 18th in Europe-touched lands, earlier than that even in the Ottoman Empire and China,” I lamented. “If you want to go to some remote area, whatever, but if you actually enjoy the advances of modern society and dislike living under a rock, well.” The rest was self-explanatory.

“Don't let Ciaran crush your fantasies,” Alice broke into the conversation. “I'm not a user, so this comes from experience. Magic comes with a lot of benefits they take for granted, like being able to light a fire without trying, being able to fly, even defending yourself if you're ever attacked.”

“So you see, being a super is amazing,” Olivia summed up beautifully.

Veex chuckled and patted Derrick on the back, just now getting up from a victory at War. “Don't worry, the rest of us manage just fine around these two.” He pointed his thumb at myself and Olivia. “The biggest reason why supers aren’t a big deal– no offense – is because we have firepower, man. Guns, rockets, bazookas – it's not difficult to surpass 'em.”

“How did you and Alice even get involved with supers?” Derrick questioned. Olivia took her sweet time detailing all of the exploits involved in a supernatural-oriented career, cutting off the two people whom the question was addressed to.

Derrick looked my way and gave me a look. He was finally catching on to Olivia’s ego. Took him long enough. I rolled my eyes and shook my head. Better not antagonize Olivia while she was at the wheel.

We drove for a day, rested, and then got up early to start driving again. We were nearing the Canadian border when something smashed into the RV from the side and flipped it up into the air.

My eyes glanced to the side window as I tried to see what the flying fuck had just happened. We were literally just trying to go on a road trip. Thankfully, the windows on the RV were tough and didn’t shatter as the RV crashed down on the ground. Unfortunately, the metal deformed inward like a crushed soda can. Whatever sent us flying hit us like a freight train.

The non-supers were all strung out against the interior walls of the RV, all of them bleeding and unconscious. Olivia had, amazingly, been decapitated by a giant ax.

I gaped as I tried to reason both why and how someone had ordered a hit on Olivia and decided that the best way to kill her was with a freaking ax. Hell yeah. I was almost jealous I didn’t throw the ax myself. Olivia had helped save my life, true, but she was annoying and arrogant as all else. I'm not one to leave debts unpaid, but Olivia...hmm. I felt no remorse for her death, no sense of any debt unfulfilled between us. I can usually feel if I have a tie to someone just after they die, sense what ties me to them. It's a most excellent practice to sever these ties, believe me.

Maybe I didn't have any ties binding me to her this time because saving me only served to nullify all the terrible shit she'd said and done to me over the past three months. Tough luck for her.

I hoped a little time in Respite would let her stew on her own faults, become a better person, one worthy of leaving ties behind in death to be fulfilled by the living.