Free Warrior Beautiful by Wendy Knight Page A

o’clock. She’d been hoping to search for the unicorns in the daylight. If she didn’t hurry, she’d lose the remaining light.
    “Feel free to raid the kitchen. I’m going to take a shower.” That ’ s a good excuse. They ’ re certainly not gonna follow me into the bathroom. She headed for the stairs before either of her ‘guests’ made it entirely through the doorway. She stared hard at the carpet, afraid to look up and see the family pictures hanging on the wall, afraid of the pain. She practically sprinted past Lil Bit’s door, and made it to her room without breaking down. But then she turned, looked at her bed, saw Lil Bit’s stuffed puppy she always slept with. It felt like the world froze and took her heart with it, and then it shattered while she watched. Sobs rose, the kind of sobs that tore at her lungs and made her throat burn. She threw herself on the bed, buried her face in her pillow so no one could hear her, and pulled Lil Bit’s puppy tight against her chest.
    Either her attempts to muffle her sobs failed miserably and he had heard her, or he just guessed correctly, but Trey knelt on the floor next to her, stroking her hair away from her face. “Hey. Hey, it’s going to be okay. Lil Bit will be fine. She’s tough, Scout. She’ll be fine.”
    She shoved his hand away. “Why are you doing this? Why are you suddenly being so nice? Your girlfriend is downstairs, Trey. Go comfort her and leave me alone!”
    Trey sat back, and she saw the brief flash of pain before he hid it behind a mask of coldness. “I’m being nice because you don’t have anyone else, Scout. Apparently that accident made you incapable of making real friends, and I’m the only one you’ve got.”
    “That accident made me realize who my true friends were, Trey. It wasn’t the drill team. It wasn’t the jocks or the geeks or anyone else from school and it certainly wasn’t you. It was Lil Bit. She was the only one there, day after day. No one else matters but her!” Scout leaped from the bed, feeding on the anger, welcoming it because anger was so much better than hopelessness and despair. “You wanted to come here, Trey. I didn’t invite you. So go take care of your girlfriend and leave. Me. Alone.” She ended at the door, flinging it open and glaring at him until he got up.
    “Fine, Scout. One day you’re gonna realize you need someone besides yourself and you’ll regret pushing everyone else away.” He gave her a long look before he passed her, shutting the door behind him.
    Scout stayed on her feet for five long seconds before she slowly slid to the floor. “I do need someone besides myself. And she’s waiting for me to save her,” she whispered, burying her face in the stuffed puppy.
    She let herself cry for two minutes. When the two minutes were up, she pushed herself to her feet. First, she decided, she should change out of her pajamas. She wasn’t sure what, exactly, one should wear to go unicorn searching, but she was pretty sure it wasn’t comfy fleece pants and an old t-shirt. Jeans were probably okay, and a long sleeve shirt. She was allergic to dogs and cats. Would she be allergic to unicorns, too? Her hiking boots seemed like a smart idea as well. She pulled her straggly hair into a ponytail while she crossed the room to the window.
    It opened smoothly, only squeaking a bit in protest. She shoved the screen out and set it inside, because screens were expensive. Her dad had made her buy a new one once when she’d torn the old one sneaking out of the house to see the boy currently downstairs with another girl. She glanced around, hoping for something else to delay her, but there was nothing.
    Fear tried, briefly, to strangle her — fear of falling to her death, fear of getting caught by the soul stealers or whoever enforced the quarantine laws, but mostly fear of not finding the unicorns. She swallowed, hard, forcing the fear out of her throat and somewhere around the proximity of her stomach.