The 52nd (The 52nd Saga Book 1)

by Dela

  “No, stay down for bit. You look really pale,” he ordered.

  I tried to look around through the spinning. I wasn’t on the upstairs parking level anymore; I was at the bottom of the stairs near the water’s edge. “Did I . . .”

  The inner corners of his eyebrows slanted together. “Fall down the stairs? Yes.”

  “How long was I out for?”

  “Only a minute.”

  My hand throbbed. I tried to get a closer look at the red, swollen knuckles but whimpered in pain when I flexed them. Lucas moved in carefully, his eyes on the plump bruise, and without asking, he reached for my hand.

  A tingling sensation zapped me the instant our fingers touched. I jerked at first, causing his hands to press more firmly around my fingers, but my muscles eased as I watched him survey the damage. He gently turned my wrist a couple of different ways and then was quiet for a short second. Annoyed that I was still lying in his arms, it occurred to me that this guy always showed up when something bad happened. Thankfully, he finally let go, and my growing panic eased.

  “It’s not broken . . . that’s good,” he said.

  “How do you know?”

  “No bones are popping out in abnormal places. Can you move your fingers?”

  Despite the pain, I flexed my fingers slowly. “Yes.”

  “You’re okay, just a bruised hand. Do you think you can get up now?”

  I nodded. He was helping me to my feet when a soft ring sounded in his pocket. I jumped, still shaken from what I had seen. Lucas just let the phone ring as he gazed at me. I stared back, concerned about his guilty look.

  “Aren’t you going to get that?” I asked.

  “It wouldn’t be a good idea.”

  Before the voicemail could beep, the phone rang again. It sounded urgent. But this time Lucas irritably grabbed the phone, shut it off, and buried it deep in his pocket.

  “It sounded like it was important,” I said, brushing off dirt.

  “You’re more important; they just don’t get that yet.”

  “What did you say?”

  “Family stuff, don’t worry about it.” He paused and shifted his feet, avoiding my gaze. Then he rubbed his hand down his neck as color rose in his face. “Ah, dammit.”

  “Excuse me?”

  He shook his head as if I’d misunderstood him and pinned his gaze on me. “You going to be okay?” His blue eyes showed only honest sincerity, but with the urgency of needing to leave.

  “Of course I’m going to be okay. It’s not like this hasn’t happened before,” I said, taking a tiny step up the stairs. But it hasn’t. Not this bad. Not this real.

  I was trying to leave him behind, but Lucas moved after me with a sudden interest. “Blacking out?”

  I turned to him, frustrated that I felt safe sharing my secrets with the one person I didn’t trust. I sighed and looked away, wondering why I was going to tell him this. “I don’t just black out. I see things.”

  “What sort of things?”

  I looked at him defensively. “It’s only happened twice.”

  “What happens?” he pressed.

  I paused, picturing the ways this could go badly, how stupid I must seem. I’ll keep it simple. “I go to a place where the sky is opposite of what it’s like here. And there’s a huge pyramid, like the ones in your country. I’ve seen them in our textbook.”

  Lucas’s eyes grew wider, as if I’d startled him. His urgency was with me now and not the missed phone call. A warning burned inside me for some reason. Leave, Zara.

  “The sky, you said it’s opposite of how it is here?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “What color was the sky?”

  I rolled my eyes, wondering why he cared about my weird hallucinations. “Orange.”

  He paled, and he was suddenly very preoccupied with the ground and scratching his head. I was about to say something, but he cut me off, an urgent note in his voice. “We better get going. Do you feel well enough to drive, or should I drive you home?”

  I backed away from him when he came closer. My knees stung. I looked down. My skin was ripped to shreds. I brushed the dirt off my knees carefully and took another step up. My left ankle was sore too. Luckily, after a few steps it felt better, and I could walk without feeling humiliated by a limp. But Lucas followed me anyway. I was mad at myself, that I couldn’t resist looking at his face, which was too beautiful to go unnoticed even now, twisted with emotion.

  When Lucas remained silent, pondering, I felt my new anger rising. I wondered things myself. He nearly stumbled into me when I stopped. “Were you following me?”

  His glare, which normally angled down on me, now shot up from the step below. “Of course not.”

  “So if you’re not following me, what were you doing out here?”

  “You’re going to turn this on me?” His smile was attractive; he looked almost proud of my rebuttal, but there was caution there, and awkwardness.

  “Yes, I’m curious.”

  “About what?” he asked.

  “You.”

  His stare went solid, the smile on his face slipped, and then he coughed. “You going to get that?”

  “Get what?”

  Just then my phone buzzed in my pocket. I stared back to Lucas as I reached for it. How did he . . . It was Jett. I huffed and hit silent. I would deal with him later.

  When I glanced back down to Lucas, his jaw had hardened and his blue eyes looked anywhere but at my own. “It isn’t safe to be alone.”

  I laughed because it was just too funny. “You don’t know Tahoe that well then. This is the safest town ever.”

  His eyes flashed to mine so harshly I felt weak. “Go home now and stay inside with your brothers. I prefer for you to be with people in general, but if Jett is whom you choose to run to after you’re done with me, or your lame party, so be it.”

  How did he know I had brothers? Fury exploded within, and the blood started to sizzle in my veins. No boy had ever been so rude to me. And who was he to decide whom I hung out with? Talk about control issues. I wondered why his face, for all its demeaning ferocity, also showed the immense sadness I knew I’d seen.

  “Is that what you want?” I asked angrily.

  He stepped away, pivoting his body so I couldn’t see his face, though I knew it was nearly exploding with frustration. He clenched his fingers tightly in his hair, then ran them through it until they stopped at his neck. He squeezed hard as he craned his head back. Underneath his madness, he looked . . . exhausted?

  He blew out a puff of air. I stared with disbelief at his strange reaction. Then he turned back to me, raising his voice through gritted teeth. “Promise me.”

  The discomfort in his contorted face proved he was interested in me. But why? Why wouldn’t he hang out with me when I asked? And why in heaven’s name did he not like the water? Who doesn’t like the water?

  Everything just felt too weird, and the anger swarmed in with a vengeance, surpassing any fear I felt.

  “Whatever,” I said, taking a few steps up the stairs before turning back to Lucas. “You know what? You don’t get to call all the shots. What if I don’t agree with you? I can do what I want. I was here first. You leave.”

  His authoritative stare sparked a pinch of cowardice in me, and I felt my squared shoulders flinch. “This isn’t your call to make. Now go home and do as I say.”

  This time I was afraid of the power in his voice and the way it made my stomach curl. I whipped around and stomped up the stairs to the car, flinging my arms dramatically in the air with each step. I didn’t look back until I got to the wagon. Surprisingly, he was right there behind me, watching. Why did he care that I wasn’t alone? What was he doing, babysitting me? Weirdo.

  The loathing I felt for Lucas was immeasurable. I shot him one last enraged glance before
dropping into my car and pulling away.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  The Way It Was

  I parked at the curb of my house minutes later and surveyed my injuries. First I looked at my knees and their shreds of broken skin. Vertical red streaks covered my kneecaps as if I’d been butchered with sandpaper. My palms were covered with cuts too, a deeper gash near one pinkie stinging worse than the others. I winced in misery.

  Now that my muscles were cold and the adrenaline almost gone, I had to force my weak legs to swing out of the car. I walked to the house with every muscle begging me to stop. I had stopped midway across the grass and arched my back in a stretch when I noticed Max and Casey’s unwashed Civic in the driveway. My intestines knotted with embarrassment about how I must look. When I got to the porch, I could hear the boys’ obnoxious cackling inside. I cracked open the front door quietly and then stepped in when I thought it was clear.

  I had one foot inside when the door miraculously opened. I jumped at the sight of Jett standing inside. He looked me over, from my feet up, his expression saturated with ridicule.

  “What happened to you?” He tried hard to keep a straight face, but a large smile spread cheek to cheek. “Max, Case, come see Zara!”

  “Where’s Poppy?” I pushed past him and headed straight for the medicine cabinet.

  Jett swiped the blond hair out of his eyes and straightened, looking confused. “Poppy?” I heard him close the door and follow me into the kitchen.

  “I saw both your cars at the slaughter house.”

  “You must have got there right after me. I didn’t even get out of my car. When you didn’t show up, I left. I tried calling you. I didn’t know she was going to be there. Promise.” He grasped my arm lightly when I tried to nudge away. “Are you okay?”

  My hair fell across my face as I glared back. A red leaf was stuck in the frizz. I yanked it out just as Max and Casey walked around the corner. They stopped at the sight of my disarray and erupted in laughter.

  The twins were tall and thin, with dirty blond hair and hazel eyes. They had a way with words that annoyed me, as their little sister, but endeared them to others. When they fought as kids, they always called each other ugly. They weren’t idiots. They knew they both had the same ugly face. I just never knew that you could fight with someone and love them all at the same time. Lesson well taught. However, such pitiful goofiness came off as bullying as they got older, and they often found themselves in fights. It seemed, lately, that Max’s unfiltered arrogance most easily distinguished him from Casey.

  “You look like Eve, Zara. Figs and all,” Max crowed as I searched the cupboard for bandages. My lip began quivering as the stinging got worse.

  “Enough, Max,” Jett intervened with a frown.

  “Thanks, by the way,” I shouted over my shoulder, hands meddling with bottles, “for asking how I was after my car crash.”

  “Negative. Not going to happen,” Casey said. “Too much bro mush.”

  Jett looked stumped. “Bro mush?”

  “Look at you, Zara,” Max mumbled, nachos and cheese spilling out of his mouth. “You’re perfectly fine, just like Jett said. Why would we need to ask how you were?”

  “And the flowers? Don’t act like you don’t care.” I asked. I was getting upset now.

  “What stupid flowers?” Max snapped back.

  Pure terror slowed my breathing. I moved slower now, feeling a prickling sensation in my toes as I rummaged through my thoughts. How did those flowers get there?

  Max rolled his eyes. “Anyways, Jett, what do you want to do today besides hook up with our sister?”

  “Max, stop!” I yelled.

  “Not cool, Max.” Jett shook his head, but I couldn’t help but notice him laughing. When I threatened him with a crazy stare, he sobered and stepped closer. “Zara, what happened? Don’t tell me you tripped.”

  Finally. The bandages. Who put them underneath the athletic tape, the rubbing alcohol, and the ibuprofen? I snatched one up, annoyed, grabbed the antibiotic ointment as well, then went to the sink. When the water ran warm, I dipped each wound under the faucet one by one and scrubbed furiously, as if it would erase my memory of Lucas—and the girl’s body bleeding out as it rolled down the steep pyramid steps.

  The work of tending my wounds made me forget about the utter humiliation of the boys’ stares, but I also grew more terrified. What if I passed out again? I bit my lip, trying to stop it from quivering harder. It was difficult until the thought of Lucas made me want to scream.

  “Zara,” Jett called from somewhere distant, but when I looked up he was standing right next to me. His eyes flicked from the bloody scrapes to my eyes and back to my unnecessarily hard scrubbing.

  “What, what did you say?” I mumbled.

  “Where’d you go?” he asked softly.

  “I went for a hike,” I lied, resuming my cleansing with more gentleness.

  “Were you attacked by an animal or something?”

  “Ha. Not exactly,” I muttered under my breath.

  “What did you say?” Casey leaned over the bar across from me. I stopped so that I could look at him clearly.

  “I said, not ex-act-ly. Gosh, what is with you guys? Lay off me for once.”

  “Wow-oh-ho!” Max snickered. “Eve to Medusa. You’re killing me, Zara.”

  “Let’s go. We need more ammo for tomorrow,” Casey said.

  The boys were never up to any good when ammo was involved. But today, my heart was ultrasensitive. So much death, so much blood.

  “You’re going shooting again? You just went. And you’re going to get caught one of these days, watch,” I reprimanded.

  Casey tilted his head with a grin. “Nah. Wilson Canyon is the best desert for it.”

  “And there’s not going to be any more animals left if you shoot them all!” My voice rose as if I had a megaphone pressed to my lips. The boys looked at me funny. “Just leave those poor rabbits, squirrels, or anything else you want to shoot alone.”

  The twins froze, looked at each other, then broke into their obnoxious laughs. “It’s coyotes,” they said as they walked away.

  Jett stayed at my side. His eyes drooped when the first tear formed in my eye. “Want to talk later?”

  I didn’t look up at him, only scrubbed. He waited a second, then dropped his head and walked away. Everything hurt. Thinking of Poppy and Jett hurt. Thinking of Lucas hurt. My damn knees hurt.

  After I had tended to every tear in my skin, I suddenly felt that everything on me had to be cleaned. I lifted my shirt up to my nose and took a sniff. Ugh, I even smell like Lucas. I went upstairs to my room, stripped off the rest of my clothes, and stepped into the shower. The fresh water stung the open flesh, making me cringe in pain. I hurried, washing away the remaining dirt and picking the black rims out from under my fingernails. Once my body smelled fruity and the cuts had turned a soft pink, I let the water fall on my back while I crossed my arms tightly over my chest.

  I squeezed my eyes shut when the memory of the girl’s scream echoed in my head. I shivered. Next came those black eyes, those creatures that looked like the one at my crash. I felt a wave of sickness inching upward as I imagined that somehow Lucas was involved.

  I tried to finish the report later that night, but I was too exhausted. The report would have to be composed of whatever I could pull from Mae’s book in the morning. I threw my hands over my chest as I lay down and listened to the drizzle with unfocused eyes. It’s strange how often it’s been raining, I thought. And then I prepared something to say if Lucas dared to show his useless face.

  I woke to yellow light shining through the window. I shot out of bed, excited to feel its missed warmth, but shivered instead with achy bones. It was chilly. Then I remembered it was already the last week of September.

  The wet streets smelled of oil as I drove to school an hour later, my
bag packed with snacks for the day. I was hoping to get something written before class, but sitting there in the empty campus library, I couldn’t focus. There was a gritty feeling in the pit of my stomach, and I questioned why I was still in town when I could be attending another college, away from home.

  At noon I met Bri at the sub shop inside the cafeteria. She was twisting her hair and avoiding her lunch as I walked up.

  “You’re not eating?” I looked at her full plate as I sat down.

  She stuck up her nose as if repulsed by her turkey sandwich and batted her eyes. “No. I am on a new diet.”

  I looked at her, amazed. “Why? You’re skinny.”

  “Not as skinny as you.” She pushed her food to the edge of the table and folded her arms. “So, what happened to your hand?”

  With the way Bri stared at my hand, I was glad I’d worn pants to cover my knees. I glanced down at it, then stared myself, dumbfounded. The purple had already turned to a soft yellow. It was nearly healed.

  “I fell,” I said.

  “Since when are you clumsy?” She chuckled.

  I looked up and folded my arms over the table. “Bri, have you been feeling normal since our crash?”

  “I feel better than normal. You, no?”

  I felt the opposite. Avoiding her gaze, I occupied myself with pretending there was something in my bag I needed. “I’m good. Just tired still, I guess.”

  Bri slouched, uninterested again, slowly picking at the bread of her sandwich. “Anyways, I can’t wait for Reno. It’s going to be so awesome. I bought the perfect dress to wear, I just hope the stupid rain doesn’t come back.” She left the sandwich and started searching for something in her purse.

  I picked up a fork and played with her Jell-O to occupy the nervous energy twisting through my veins. “So, what’s the story with you and Tommy?”

  “I don’t know.” Her speech was slow as she examined her nails. “The boy sure does move like a snail.” She glanced at her watch and stood. “Crap. I didn’t realize it was so late. I’ve got to go. See you tomorrow, right?”