She’s sitting on her bed, with her head down. Tears are falling from her eyes, and she’s wiping them away. She leans over to grab a tissue, and I get a glimpse of how blotchy her face is.
There’s a knock on the door, and I step back into the corner of the room.
“Come in,” Dallas calls.
The door opens, and her mom pokes her head in obviously gauging what’s happening in here. “Can I come in, Dallas?” her mom asks as she hesitates by the door.
“Yeah,” she responds.
Her mom meekly enters, and goes over to the bed, where she sits beside Dallas. “I know it’s hard,” she says and embraces her daughter. Dallas cries into her mom’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, sweetheart. I know how much you loved Alexa.”
“Loved?” I whisper and step forward.
Dallas looks toward my direction, and tilts her head to the side. Her mom is still hugging her, but Dallas’s eyes are searching forward. Dallas pulls away from her mom, but her eyes flick over to me. “I just need some time,” she says offering her mom a kind smile.
“Okay.” Her mom stands and walks toward the door. “But don’t stay in here crying all night. I know you’ll miss her, but I’m worried about you.”
“Thanks, Mom.” Her mom leaves and closes the door behind her. Dallas stands from her bed, “Lexi, are you here?” she asks looking in my direction.
“I’m here,” I reply. And I’m ripped back into the now. “Damn it!” I shout.
“What’s wrong?” Dallas asks.
I can’t tell her how I think within the next few hours I’m going to die, that’ll destroy Dallas, and saying goodbye will be hard enough as it is. But now I know this will be the last goodbye I’ll ever say to her. “Nothing,” I say with a huge lump in my throat.
“What did you see? Oh, my God, is something bad going to happen?”
Yes. “No.” I smile. “Trust me, if it was bad I’d let you know.” No, I wouldn’t. “Anyway, what are you doing here?” I look at Dallas, and notice her cheeky smile. “Did you plan this? With him?” I turn and point to Jude who’s looking all smug and cocky. And cute.
“Not exactly.” Dallas drapes her arm over my shoulders and we start walking toward the little house.
“I don’t get what’s happening. And why aren’t you at school?”
“Jude kidnapped me.”
“What?” I turn to look at Jude, the fire inside me is seconds off erupting. “What the hell?” I yell as I storm toward him. “You kidnapped her? Jude, what are you thinking?” Someone chuckles from behind me, but it’s not Ronan, it’s Dallas. Turning to look at her, I swing around again to Jude and stare at him, then back to her. “What’s going on? Why are you both laughing?”
“Because when I went to the bathroom this morning, Jude was in there waiting for me.”
“Ewww,” I respond. Turning, I look at Jude and screw my face at him. “I know you’re a stalker, but waiting for her in the bathroom?”
“It was the only way I could get to her.”
“Wait, why?” Oh man, my head is spinning.
“Because I had a plan.” Jude steps forward, leans down and kisses my forehead. No damn vision this time. Ugh, am I defective?
“Will someone please tell me what’s going on? I feel like I’m in an episode of American Horror Story.”
Jude’s hands rub gently up and down my covered arms. He leans down and whispers in my ear, “I wanted you to get your goodbye.”
It dawns on me. It hits me right in the chest, a pain so deep it feels like a knife is striking over and over again. This is my goodbye to Dallas, because I can never see her again. It’s just too dangerous for me to be in her life. “Oh.”
“You have until two. Then we have to take her back, so no one suspects anything. She was supposed to be in school, but she’s not.”
“Her parents will find out,” I say worried for Dallas.
“Trust me, Lexi, they’ll never know.”
“How?” I want to know the ins and outs, but I doubt Jude or even Dallas will tell me. “Just tell me no one is getting hurt.”
Jude lets out a deep laugh, throwing his head back in a carefree manner. “No one is getting hurt. We had to do it this way, so Dallas wouldn’t know. But she was on board from the moment I told her I was taking her to see you.”
Even though I’m so happy I’m getting to see my best friend one last time, it still leaves a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. Because her mom said ‘loved’ instead of ‘love.’ Taking several deep breaths, I choose not to tell Jude what I know.
If keeping her safe means I need to die, then that’s exactly what’s going to happen.
If today will be the last day of my life, then I’m going to spend it with the best person in the world. Dallas.
“Okay,” I say as I stare at the picturesque cottage in front of us. Walking over to Dallas, I snake my arm around her waist and lean in to kiss her cheek. The vision starts dragging me in, but I pull away before I can be forced to watch Dallas cry about how she ‘loved’ me. “What is this place?”
“This is for you and Dallas.” Jude walks ahead of us, holds the front door open and waits for us to enter.
“This is the coolest place ever,” Dallas happily announces.
We enter, and although Dallas has already seen inside, I haven’t. The first thing I notice is the calming music playing in the background. I look around the pale-colored room and notice the four framed posters of a ying-yang, a heart, pastel flowers in a vase, and the last poster is of a large water-colored heart. “Are we in a day spa?” I ask looking around, trying to take in all the surroundings and textures.
“Welcome back, Mr. Caley,” a woman dressed in a white flowy dress says to Jude.
“Is everything set?” he asks.
“As you instructed.” She gives him a small nod, then a smile. “They’re in good hands.”
“I know,” he adds.
“What’s going on?” I ask.
“Mr. Caley has booked my spa for the day. The entire staff are here for you. We’ll be starting off the day with a massage, then we’ll be moving onto a pedicure, and manicure, followed by a mud bath, then ending it with another massage and a facial.”
Shit. Panic rapidly spreads. People will be touching me, which means I’m going to get everyone’s immediate future. I know Jude meant well, but I can’t relax when I’m going to be getting dragged into all these peoples’ visions. “Everything sounds fantastic,” I breathe out. My eagerness isn’t for all these treatments I can’t have, but for the fact I’m spending the next four hours with Dallas.
“But?” the woman asks me picking up on my reservations.
“Other than the mud bath, I can’t participate in anything else.”
Jude touches my shoulder, and I turn to look at him. “They know not to touch you,” he whispers.
“They know?” An alarm rings in my ears. If they know, then that means I’m susceptible to someone else taking me and using me. “Jude,” I whipser in a warning tone.
“They’ve been told to use gloves.” He lifts his eyebrows, looking between me and the lady who runs this place.
Suddenly, easiness washes over me. He’s silently telling me, he hasn’t said anything to them about my visions, just that they need to wear gloves.
Blowing out a sigh of relief, I smile and look at Jude. “Thank you,” I say, deeply appreciative of his consideration for me.
“Well ladies, this is where I leave you. I’m sure Amy will look after you both.” Jude turns to face the woman who’ll be looking after us.
“Of course,” she says with enthusiasm. “If you two would like to follow me.”
Peering over my shoulder to Jude, he winks at me before giving me a sweet smile. “Ronan and I will be waiting outside.”
“This way,” Amy says and leads us down a long, well-lit corridor to a room on the left. The room is dimly lit, a striking contrast to what I’ve seen of the house so far. There’s a subtle aro
ma of jasmine floating in the air, while soothing music plays in the background. “Mr. Caley was insistent I tend to you, Alexa, and this is Jacinta who’ll be looking after you, Dallas.” A young woman comes into the room, she’s dressed identical to Amy. “He also told me of your skin condition, but don’t worry, no need to be ashamed of it.” My skin condition? What did he tell her? “I have special gloves made out of super soft bamboo.”
“Okay,” I respond.
“Bamboo doesn’t sound super soft to me,” Dallas pipes in.
“Trust me, they are. Now if you two would like to go into the bathroom, you can strip down to your panties, and slip on the robes we have hanging in there. Then come back out here and lay on the beds. Jacinta and I will step out and give you some privacy. We’ll be back in a few moments.” They both exit the room and I’m left looking at Dallas.
“Thank you,” I say to her. “For being here. It means the world to me.” Because this is our last time together.
She steps close to me, and pulls me in for a hug, being especially careful not to touch any part of my skin. “I love you, chicky. There’s no way I’d miss out on it.”
I pull out of the hug and head toward where Amy pointed, finding a small bathroom which’ll be quite difficult for two people to use simultaneously. “Why did you trust Jude when he showed up to ‘kidnap’ you?” I air quote kidnap, and chuckle to myself.
“Because you trust him. You sent me to find him after . . .” She swallows hard and looks down at her feet. “After Enzo. You sent me to find him to help me, and he did. It’s a no brainer, Lexi. He told me what he wanted to do, and I willingly went with him.”
“You have a lot of faith in a man who could easily kill you.”
Her lips turn up into a huge grin, the happiness traveling up to her eyes. “He likes you too much to kill me.” Entering the bathroom, I close the door and strip down, then slide the robe over my shoulders. Leaving the bathroom, I find Dallas is already laying on her stomach on the bed, and the only thing covered is her butt. I can’t resist myself, I walk over and smack it hard. Her butt jiggles, and she bursts into laughter. “Leave my ass alone, sister,” she spits toward me, laughing.
Getting on the other bed, I sit on the edge. “What do you mean he likes me too much to kill you?”
“If he didn’t have an interest in you, he wouldn’t have come after you. When I got to that sunglass store you directed me to, the chick, whatever her name is, was hesitant to call Jude. But, I yelled so loudly she had to or I would’ve made a bigger scene. She called him, and handed me the phone, when I told him where I was, and who I was, he told me he was on the way to collect me.”
“So?” I shrug my shoulders, what’s this got to do with anything?
“He told me to wait inside the store, and not to go anywhere. He was in the store about ten minutes later.” I shrug again. “He ushered me to the car, and started bombarding me with questions. Everything was about you, and who had you. He asked me if Enzo had hurt you, or . . .” she pauses for a second, “ . . . raped you.”
Swallowing all the saliva gathering in my mouth, I turn my head to not look at Dallas. “What did you tell him?”
“I told him everything. Everything I knew, that is,” she corrects herself quickly and softly. “I told him how Enzo kept you in the room, how the men would look at you, how they’d lick their lips when they’d see us, and how they made no secret of what they wanted to do.”
“Are you two ready?” Amy calls as she enters.
“Yeah,” I answer on behalf of both of us, but in my heart, I want to say no so Dallas and I can talk. This is the first, and last, time we’ll talk since Jude rescued me.
Taking the robe off, I rest it over the end of the table, climb up and lay on my stomach. Letting my arms dangle over the edge of the bed, I close my eyes and wait. “I’m warming some lotion up between my hands before I apply it, okay?” Amy asks.
“Yeah,” I answer. My mind is racing in every direction possible, because I want to know what Jude’s reaction was when Dallas contacted him.
Amy applies her hands to my back, and she’s not wearing gloves, because I’m drawn into a vision. I fight it, I don’t want to be here, but the vision keeps dragging me into it. God, I don’t want to be in here. Closing my eyes, I count slowly in my head, relaxing my shoulders and my body, controlling the depth and speed of my breaths.
As I pull myself out of the situation, I hear someone say, “Alexa Murphy . . .”
“What?” Opening my eyes, I look around the room I’ve been pulled into. Taking in my surroundings, I know exactly where I am.
A painting of pastel flowers in a vase.
Ying-yang.
Damn it, I’m here, in the front room.
“When did she leave?” I look at the man who’s talking with Amy, and he has no face. His features are all blended into one another, there’s nothing recognizable on him. I couldn’t pick him out if I saw him again.
“She left about two, maybe three hours ago, and then someone came to get the friend.”
“Her friend, who?” he asks as he types on his phone.
I tiptoe over to the faceless man and look on the screen of his phone, but just like his face, his screen is blank. What worries me is Amy isn’t alarmed by the faceless man, which means he isn’t faceless to her, only to me.
Which makes me believe he knows about me and what I can see and he’s concealing who he is so I can’t recognize him.
This changes everything . . . this has now become scary.
“Who are you?” I ask in a voice so small, I’m positive no one can hear it.
I look to Amy, she’s made no movement to indicate she’s heard me. But, the faceless guy, he steps back cautiously and makes no sudden movements, until he yells out the door, “She’s here now.”
My heart beat accelerates as I stand in the room looking around me. I have to get out. I need to get out of this vision, now.
Closing my eyes, I start to calm my thumping heart. “Get out,” I say to myself.
“She’s leaving, get in here now!” he yells again.
I’m back on the table, and I turn to look at Amy. Shocked, she steps backward. “You’re shaking,” she says.
Dallas lifts on one elbow, she draws in her brows before her eyes alternate between myself and Amy. “Give us a minute,” she instructs them.
When the door closes, I reach out and grab a nearby folded towel, holding it to my body while I shift into an upright position.
Dallas does the same, and we sit on the beds facing one another. “They know,” I say.
“Who knows what?” Dallas tone is filled with worry.
Jumping off the bed I start to pace inside the room. Something is wrong, very wrong. Throwing on the robe, I head out where Amy and Jacinta are both waiting. “Is everything okay?” Amy asks, her eyes appear concerned.
I hold a finger up to her, and make my way outside. Ronan is leaning against the car looking down at his phone, and Jude’s in the back with door open, on his laptop.
The moment they both see me, Ronan draws his gun, and Jude’s out of the car, up on the porch beside me. “What’s wrong?” he asks as he indicates for Ronan to go into the cottage and check things out.
“We have to go,” I say with urgency.
“Why? What’s happened?” He runs his hands down my arms and pulls me in toward his body. “You’re trembling, Lexi. What did you see?”
I know what I have to do. I have to say goodbye to Dallas. I was hoping on these next few hours with her, so when I finally did say goodbye, she’d recall this day as one of the best in her life.
I hate for her to remember it like this.
“They’re coming,” I slowly say to Jude.
It takes him all of five seconds to know who I’m talking about. “How long?”
“A few hours.” Tears pool in my eyes. This will be the last time I see Dallas.
Jude nods his head, then searches for Ronan. “Okay,” he respond
s. His own stance changes, his shoulders dip and he puffs out a caught breath. “You have to say goodbye to her.”
Nodding, a tear falls from my eyes. I know. He doesn’t need to tell me what I have to do. It’s the only thing I can do to keep her safe. “I know,” I say, swallowing back the hurt desperately wanting to escape. My gaze drifts away from Jude’s. I don’t want him to see the ache inside me.
“I’ll give you ten minutes, but then we have to leave.”
Silently I head back inside. Dallas is standing in the cute, serene waiting area, her arms wrapped around her body. She’s wearing one of the robes provided by the spa. “Are you okay?” she asks as she approaches me.
My eyes meet Amy and Jacinta, who are both standing against the wall, their brows drawn in, watching us. I jerk my head to the side indicating the room we were in to get our massagers. I wait until Dallas is inside the room before I close the door, and flick the lock. “I have to go.”
“What? What happened?” Dallas steps back until her body finds the wall. She slumps against it, worried.
“They’ve found me.”
“Who’s they?”
“I wish I knew. But they know who I am, and they’re after me. And they’re coming here.”
Dallas stares at me, and I’m doing everything I can to hold in the tears. “Alexa,” her soft voice twists the knife further into my heart. “What aren’t you telling me?”
I have to say goodbye, or her life will forever be in danger. “I’ll miss you,” I say, as the tears prickling my eyes finally break free.
“What?” she questions, skeptically. “Jude’s set this up, he can do it again.”
A huge lump lodges in my throat as I hold back the sobs. I lift my chin, my eyes find hers. I search them, silently begging her to not realize there’ll be no more. “Okay,” I respond, but I sound unconvincing, even to me.
She stares at me, and a tear rolls down her cheek. “Alexa,” she whispers. I try not to give anything away, but I’m struggling to hold the hurt in. “There’s not going to be a chance to do this again, is there?”
I clasp my hands together trying to stop the shaking. The tremble moves through my body, quivering. She’s realized this is it for us. Now I need to be brave enough to tell her the words. I shake my head, electing to take the cowards way out.
The Curse: The Butterfly Effect, Book 2. Page 12