The doll is here, just as Raphael said it would be. Now I need to find a way to destroy it.
As soon as I’m inside my room with the door securely shut, I take out my phone and send a text to Ms. Samson.
Chapter 27
The grounds of the house really are incredible. Everything is lush and green, despite the intense heat we’ve been having for most of the last few years. Mom, Lola, and I stroll around the nearly two acres of land slowly, taking it all in. I can’t help but wonder if there’s a team of gardeners and landscapers hiding somewhere in the bushes. Every last piece of grass is immaculately cared for. There’s no way Sandra Smith is doing this by herself, especially with her crazy schedule.
We’re approaching the beehives when we hear the crunching sound of tires on the drive outside the house, followed by the beep of a car horn.
Lola frowns. “It sounds like someone’s here,” she says, wiping at a drop of sweat slowly making its way down the side of her neck.
“Maybe Sandra forgot something,” Mom says.
“Doubt it,” Lola says, turning toward the house. “That woman is the most organized person on the face of this Earth.”
We round the corner of the house, and I smile as soon as I see who is waiting for us. Ms. Samson, Lily, and Cassandra are leaning against the hood of a parked car. I have no idea how they got here so quickly.
“Hello, Jasmine,” Ms. Samson says as we walk up. “I hope it’s okay that we popped by. We’re just on our way to go camping.” She turns to Lola and Mom. “A bit of a school trip. All the girls are staying at a camp just north of here. The heat in the city right now is too oppressive.”
I give the three of them big hugs. “That’s amazing. It’s so good to see you. Mom, Lola,” I say, turning around. “This is my teacher, Ms. Samson, and my friends, Lily and Cassandra.”
Mom smiles. “So I finally get to meet Lily and Cassandra,” she says, walking over and warmly embracing both of them. “I don’t know how to thank you enough for going to the hospital with Jade.”
Lola hangs back a bit. She’s wary of our visitors and doesn’t completely believe their story about camping. I don’t blame her; it wasn’t the best lie I’ve ever heard.
One of the back doors of the car opens and Mina appears. She slams the door behind her and stretches, reaching her long, thin arms high above her head to tie back her hair in a loose bun.
“I was boiling in there,” she says irritably. “When are we leaving? I’d like to put up a tent before sundown.”
I raise an eyebrow at Ms. Samson. Why would she bring Mina here? As if I don’t have enough to worry about, now I also have to put up with possibly the most annoying, bitchy person on the planet.
“You really must stay and have a late lunch with us,” Mom says. “The least I can do to is feed you a big meal before you go off to only campfire-cooked meals.”
Ms. Samson looks over at the girls. Both Lily and Cassandra nod enthusiastically, encouraging her to accept Mom’s invitation. Mina crosses her bony arms in front of her chest and glares straight ahead.
“If you’re sure it’s no trouble …” Ms. Samson begins, glancing uncertainly at Mom.
“Not at all,” Mom says. “It’s okay, isn’t it, Lola? I should’ve asked.”
Lola grins. “Of course. If these girls had anything to do with bringing our Jade back to us, we need to feed them like queens.” She turns and waves us toward the house. Except, I know that’s the last thing she wants to do. She’s wondering how they found us and why they’re really here.
Cassandra gives me a sideways glance; she’s also just read Lola’s thoughts.
After an amazing meal of beans and rice and a fresh salad of dandelion greens, Lily and I go upstairs to check on Jade.
I gently push the door open. The shutters have closed on this side of the house to keep the late afternoon sun out, so I turn on a lamp that’s sitting on the dresser. The bulb casts a soft glow over the room. Jade is still under the duvet cover, her long, dark hair spilling over the pillow. Her laboured breathing fills the room.
“How long has she been like this?” Lily whispers, walking into the room behind me.
“She’s gotten weaker and weaker since the day we came home,” I say, keeping my voice low, though I doubt anything less than a drum and bass party would wake Jade now. “The sleeping has been constant today. She says she’s dying.”
“What?” Lily says, shocked. “That can’t be. She was hardly hurt in the accident. Why does she think that?”
“I can’t explain right now,” I reply, walking over and sitting down on the edge of the bed. Jade’s skin is so pale, it seems almost bloodless. “But she’s right. If I don’t do something very soon, I think we’re are going to lose her.” My voice wavers on the last word, and I bite my bottom lip very hard to force back my tears.
“Girls?” It’s Mom. She’s standing in the doorway, her face full of concern. “She’s still asleep?”
“Yeah,” I say with false optimism. “I think she’s just recovering from the shock of everything. You know, being back and the subway accident. Or maybe it’s just a really bad flu.”
Mom frowns. “Maybe,” she says, doubt edging her voice. “We’re going to resume our walk. Gillian … I mean, Ms. Samson, wants to see the grounds before heading off. Why don’t both of you join us?”
I don’t like the idea of leaving Jade on her own in the house again, but know that it will seem strange if I don’t join everyone on the walk. Reluctantly, I get up from the bed and follow Lily and Mom out of the room, carefully closing the door behind us.
I desperately want to talk to Ms. Samson to find out why they’re here, especially with Mina. It’s pretty obvious the entire camping-slash-field trip thing is a big excuse, but I don’t know whether to feel relieved that other Seers are here, or worried that it means Jade and I are in major danger.
Mina sighs heavily every few minutes to exaggerate her annoyance at having to walk around with us. I grit my teeth and try to ignore her. Lily and Cassandra walk beside me. From the slightly pained expressions on their faces, I can tell they want to ask me questions about Jade and what’s happening. I wish there was somewhere we could go and talk, but Lola keeps glancing over as she gives us the tour. She’s keeping her on eye on me, which is fine with me because I don’t trust her much anymore either.
“I need to go to the bathroom,” Mina says to no one in particular.
I don’t say anything in response; she can go behind some bush for all I care. Mom looks at me. I stare at the ground, pretending not to notice.
“Jasmine,” Mom says, impatience edging into her voice. If there’s one thing she doesn’t tolerate, it’s bad manners. I’m going to hear it about this once everyone leaves.
“Yes?” I arch an eyebrow questioningly at her.
“Take your friend back to the house and show her where the bathroom is, please.”
Mina smirks. I wish I could pound that grin right off her face with my fist. Instead, I grit my teeth and smile at Mom.
“Sure. Be right back.”
As soon as we’re out of earshot, Mina turns to me. The smartass grin is gone. It’s been replaced with an expression I’ve never seen on Mina’s face before: concern.
“When we get to the house, you need to take Jade out of there, and then, no matter what, don’t come back in. Promise me.”
I stare at her in disbelief. What is she talking about?
“Jade’s asleep,” I say. “She’s not feeling well, and I’m not moving her anywhere, thanks very much.”
“I know what’s happening. Ms. Samson filled me in. That’s why we’re here. Jade doesn’t have much time, but I think you already know that. Twins sense these things, don’t we?”
My face grows hot. I feel betrayed by Ms. Samson. Why would she tell Mina what’s happening to Jade? And why bring her he
re? After all, she’s a Seer with a dead twin, which means her powers are limited at best.
“Don’t be stupid about this, Jasmine. They’ll be back from touring around this place soon, and then it will be too late. Just do it, okay? The Seers need you and Jade to be strong. Terrible things are on the horizon.”
Her words echo Raphael’s, but I trust Mina about as much as I’d trust Hitler. Yet, the desperation in her eyes makes me feel I need to go along with what she’s saying. Besides, I can’t turn down any offer of help for Jade. Not at this point.
“I know about the doll,” she says, interrupting my thoughts. “It needs to be destroyed. It needs to be destroyed so Jade can live. And for you to be whole.”
And that’s when I realize exactly what she’s planning to do.
She smiles at me, knowing I’ve just read her mind.
“All right,” I say. “But if you screw this up … I’ll personally kill you.”
“I think you and I both know that won’t be necessary,” she says quietly.
I nod. “Thanks,” I say as we continue to walk toward the house. It’s all I can manage, and even then the word sticks uncomfortably in my throat.
Jade’s still asleep when I enter her room, and it takes a few minutes of gentle shaking and prodding from me before she fully wakes up. Her lips are dry, with little bits of skin hanging off them like loose roof shingles. I grab the glass of water Mom placed on the nightstand and pass it to her. Her hands shake as she gulps it down.
“We’ve got to go outside for a few minutes,” I say, helping her sit up. The way her breath rattles around in her chest scares me.
Jade waves me away. “Too tired,” she says weakly.
I wrap a flannel blanket from the foot of the bed around Jade’s shoulders.
“Too bad,” I say, lifting her off the bed and pulling her left arm around my shoulder. She’s surprisingly light. How could she lose so much weight in just a few days? “I promise we won’t be long, but this is important.”
She doesn’t protest as we stumble down the stairs and out the door together. I have no idea where Mina is. There’s a gazebo in the far corner of the front lawn. That’s likely as far as we’re going to get. Jade’s fading fast and her weight is becoming too much for me to support.
As soon as we sit down, I smell it. Smoke.
“Oh my God, Jazz,” Jade whispers. She’s looking at something over my shoulder. “The house.”
I swivel to look. There’s a thick plume of black smoke rising from one of the bedroom windows on the second floor.
The house is on fire.
Chapter 28
Lola’s screams rip apart the heavy afternoon air like gunshots as she and Mom run toward the house. Jade’s eyes widen, but she doesn’t move from her slumped position on the gazebo bench. I watch, frozen, as the glass in one of the windows bursts, sending embers sailing up into the sky like tiny fireflies. Mina’s still in there. I make a mental note of which room the fire is coming from. If I’m remembering right, it’s the bedroom Lola was going to stay in.
As they get closer to the house, I see that Mom’s face is a mask of panic, and realize she still thinks Jade’s inside. I stand up.
“We’re here!” I shout, waving my hands in the air. “Over here. Jade’s with me.”
Ms. Samson looks over, grabs Mom’s arm, and points.
Relief washes over Mom’s face. Everyone heads in our direction, except Lola.
Mom reaches us first and throws her arms around us. She’s sobbing, her chest violently rising and falling as she clutches us close.
“Thank God you’re both safe,” she whispers.
I struggle from her grasp just in time to see Lola enter the house.
The doll. She’s going after the doll. Flames lick at the side of the house now and crawl their way up onto the reclaimed wood shingles of the roof. There must be a fire station around here somewhere, but likely it’s volunteer and not exactly around the corner.
What Lola’s doing is suicide. There’s no way she’ll make it to the second floor, let alone to the doll. The flames will have consumed it by now. Consumed it and Mina, unless she managed to escape.
I look over at Jade. She’s still listless, like a rag doll in Mom’s arms. Shouldn’t she be improving if the doll has been destroyed?
And, if Lola truly realized the importance of that doll, would she have pulled it out in front of me when she unpacked? Would she have just left it unprotected in her room while all of us went outside? In fact, would she have been so careless as to have dropped it on our kitchen floor in the first place? Or did part of her want me to find it?
Despite having my world turned inside out and upside down over the last week or so, it’s still hard for me to believe that Lola would ever purposefully hurt either me or Jade.
I need to get her out of there. She’s going to get killed.
Before I can talk myself out of it, I’m running, ignoring the protests from behind me, ignoring the fact that I’m breaking the promise I made to Mina. The ground bounces up and down in front of me like a trampoline as I run. Glass shatters in the window beside the room where the fire started. The flames are spreading fast.
Smoke fills my lungs as soon as I enter the house, so I drop to the floor and begin to crawl. There’s no way Lola’s going to make it to the doll; I can feel the heat radiating from the floor above me. And I’m right. Through the smoky haze, I see Lola lying slumped on the stairs to the second floor. She didn’t even make it to the third step.
Keeping as low as I can, I make my way over to her. From outside, there’s the sound of approaching sirens.
Lola’s eyes are half-closed when I reach her, and she seems to be on the brink of unconsciousness.
I shake her shoulders. “Lola!”
She murmurs, opens her eyes a bit wider, and coughs violently several times.
“Jasmine … I’m sorry. I did it for Femi. I had to make a choice …” Another fit of coughing stops her from finishing her sentence.
This is not the time to have a conversation. My eyes are stinging from the smoke. It’s getting thicker by the second. Tears pour down my cheeks. There’s an enormous cracking sound from somewhere above us. The sirens are closer now. I doubt they have many, if any fire fighting drones out here.
“I need to get us out of here,” I say. “We don’t have much time.” The smoke is choking me now; it’s like a fist closing around my lungs.
I move Lola so that the back of her head is against my chest. Then I kneel, grab her under the armpits, and begin to drag her off the stairs. She’s heavy, much heavier than I expected, and a sudden rush of light-headedness washes over me like an ocean wave.
“I thought at least I could keep you safe. I’m sorry…. You don’t know how sorry I am,” Lola murmurs, her voice cracking with emotion.
“It’s okay. We need to just get out of here,” I say, finishing my sentence with a fit of coughing.
Dragging her is too much. My lungs spasm from the smoke; I can’t catch my breath. Dizziness washes over me, and for a moment the room lurches sickeningly, causing me to drop Lola to the floor. She doesn’t react: she’s nearly unconscious now. I lie on my stomach, sucking at the air like a fish that’s been flung out of water, desperate for any last bit of oxygen I can get. The darkness is closing in.
Mina was right; I shouldn’t have come back in here.
“If I didn’t let them take Jade, Femi would’ve died … but I made sure she didn’t die. I didn’t want her to die.”
For a moment, the world freezes. Lola’s eyelids are fluttering like butterfly wings as she tries to regain consciousness. “What did you just say?” I ask, my voice trembling, but it’s too late, she’s not responsive at all, even when I shake her.
I should leave her. She just admitted she let Jade be taken so that Femi could live. Her job was to
protect my sister and me. Instead, if what she said is true, she allowed Jade’s abduction. She basically sacrificed my sister.
The familiar rage is back. My body shakes with it. I’m going to leave Lola here. Let her feel the kind of fear Jade must’ve felt all these years, trapped in the Place-in-Between. I hope she regains consciousness before the flames take her, so she can experience the burn.
I begin to pull myself along on my belly, snakelike, toward the door, trying to ignore the part of me that’s screaming to go back and get Lola. The open door is just a few metres away now, the light from outside guiding me like a beacon. I’ve got enough energy to make it.
And that’s when I look back over my shoulder at Lola lying motionless on the wood floor. If I leave her here to die, that makes me no better than her. It would be like murder. But, more than anything else, if Lola dies, it will break Mom’s heart.
I turn, crawl back to Lola, and put both my hands under the fleshy part of her upper back. My eyes sting from the heat and smoke, causing tears to run down my cheeks.
“Come on,” I whisper. “Help me out here.”
And that’s when I see it. A dark shadow moves toward me, emerging from the smoke, getting closer and closer. I open my mouth to scream, but nothing comes out. A few moments later, the darkness swallows me.
Chapter 29
All I smell is smoke. When I open my eyes, the light is blinding, and I immediately close them again.
“Jasmine. Can you hear me?” It’s Jade. Her hand touches my shoulder, and she shakes me gently, encouraging me to open my eyes again.
This time I shield my eyes against the light. Faces loom above me. Mom’s here and Jade, as well as Ms. Samson, Lily, and Cassandra. Everyone is looking at me with this weird mixture of concern and relief. I open my mouth and try to ask where I am, but all that comes out is a strangled, toad-like croak followed by a fit of coughing. The inside of my chest feels like it’s been rubbed raw with sandpaper.
Finding Jade Page 15