His cell phone began ringing from the front pocket of his jeans. He let it ring.
Mrs. Adams waved the gun toward his pocket. “Take it out and slide it to me across the desk.” She pointed the gun back at his head. “Sit down, we’re not going anywhere.”
He pulled the phone out and slid it to her, she flipped it open, and shut off the phone, tossing it on the floor.
Mr. Adams sat down and put his hands out flat on the desk. He looked his wife in the eye. “Just tell me what I can do.”
She backed up, continuing to aim the gun at his head, and slumped down on the couch.
“Grace knew that Erin was going to die, Mike. She knew that Avery wouldn’t save her.”
He started to get out of the chair, rising slowly. “I know that and I also know she feels just as horrible about it as either of us. There wasn’t anything she could do. She—”
“Think about it!” Mrs. Adams got up from the couch and paced back and forth, keeping the gun trained on him. “She knew that my mother was going to have a stroke, that your mother would get breast cancer. Hell, she probably knows how your father, who’s all the way in freaking Florida, is going to die and you still love her. You think I’m crazier and more messed up than she is? You’re a fool.”
“Becky, we never should have gotten married. We had no foundation to build any kind of relationship on, and that’s just as much my fault as it is yours. Erin’s probably the only thing that could have made us both happy and willing to want to stay together.” He had tears in his eyes. “But she’s gone. I should have realized that I couldn’t be happy without Grace. I don’t care what she knows, what she could or couldn’t have done. I know that’s not fair to you, just like it’s not fair to expect Avery to fill the void that Erin left.”
Mr. Adams got down on his knees and begged. “Just please let me take our son and give him a clean slate. Let’s get you well and I promise I will be in contact with you and you’ll see him again.” He got up and walked around the desk to his wife. He pushed her hand holding the gun away and embraced her.
She took a deep breath and then put the gun to his chest and pushed him back. “How long have you and the good pastor’s wife been sleeping together?”
Mr. Adams closed his eyes and exhaled, defeated.
“You reek of that ridiculous rose perfume that she wears.” She shook her head at him. “Didn’t think I knew that was going on, did you?”
The saloon doors creaked as they were pulled back and my parents walked in.
Avery snapped his fingers in front of my face.
I came back to reality. “I’ve got to call my mom right now.”
Claire’s red glittery cell phone slid across the carpet and hit me in the thigh. I dialed.
“C’mon, c’mon, c’mon,” I paced across the room, willing Mom to pick up the phone.
“Hello.” Thank God.
“Mom, it’s me. Do you know where Dad is?”
“Um…I was sleeping. Hold on, let me see if the minivan is here.” I heard her shuffle over to the bedroom window. “Yup. The minivan’s parked in the driveway. Do you want me to get him? Are you okay?”
“I have to tell you something. Please don’t get mad, okay?”
“I’m listening.” I noted that she didn’t say she wouldn’t get mad.
“I had a vision about Dad, when I hugged him goodbye and then, something else…it was like a vision, but more like I was seeing the immediate future? I don’t know, one second I’m talking to Avery about his mom and then—”
“Avery is there?”
“Yes, Mom, Avery is here. Out of all the things I just told you, that’s what you’re focusing on?”
She took in a deep breath and then let it out. “What did you see, honey? Was it anything like the vision I showed you?”
“In the first one I saw Dad trying to get a gun away from a lady, but she shoots him. In the second whatever, I watched as Avery’s mom tried to shoot Avery’s dad, but then you and Dad walked into his office.”
“Mike Adams office? Oh, God. I didn’t have the dream about him last night, Zellie. I can’t go near there or he will die for sure.” She took another deep breath. “I will keep your dad here and call the police. You have got to have Avery call his father and find out where he is.”
“Okay.” I paused, and then forced myself to ask, “You’re not mad at me?”
Mom started to cry. “We’ll talk about this later Zel, go call Mike and find out where he is.”
I ended the call with my mom and sat down next to Avery.
“You’ve got to call your dad and find out where he is.” I handed Claire’s phone to him. He looked at me, then at the phone and then back to me again like he had forgotten how to use the thing. “Seriously, now. It is very important that we know where your dad is. Something could go down tonight and both of our fathers could end up dead.”
Claire finally just came into her bedroom. “Zel, I think he knows he needs to call his father. However, you have just freaked the crap out of me and I’m guessing that he is feeling the same way too. I mean, hello, you have visions! How are we supposed to wrap our heads around that and quick like jump on the “Psychic Girl” bandwagon?”
I put one hand on Avery’s knee and extended my other to Claire, pulling her down to sit next to us. “Look, I’ve wanted to tell you both about this, for a while now. It’s just that it’s weird and confusing and I thought you would think I was crazy.” And it would have ruined everything. Crap. It was ruining everything. “I thought I had more time.”
Claire leaned in and peered into my eyes. “Have you had any visions about me? Do you know when I’m going to die? Am I skinny? Does everyone in the whole town come to my funeral?”
I grinned. Leave it to Claire to bypass the whole weirdness of my abilities and move right on to how it might affect her instead. “No, I haven’t seen your death. I haven’t had that many visions. Just the ones tonight and the one about…” I turned and looked at Avery, who was staring at me like I was an alien. “…Avery.”
He pulled his knees to his chest, letting my hand fall to the floor. I deserved that. “So that’s what was happening all those times you were spacing out? You were having visions? Did you have one the first night we got together?”
“Yeah, that was the first one I had.” I drew my hands back into my lap. This whole frickin’ scene was about to unravel and I didn’t have time for it. There was no time to explain myself. “Look, I know you all are freaked out, but this is good. I can stop things before they happen. Avery, I really need you to call your dad and find out where he is. I promise to answer all your questions later, okay?”
He dialed his home phone number and waited for a moment. “The voicemail picked up, my mom’s probably still sleeping. I’ll try my dad’s cell.” He punched in the cell number, said hello and then made a weird face. “The phone picked up, but nobody answered it.”
I took the phone from him and gave it back to Claire. I could really use a goddamned plan right about now. I chewed my bottom lip furiously. “Do you think he’s at his office?”
“I don’t know, I mean, he left the house after the fight we had…and if he didn’t go back home that’s probably where he is.”
Standing up, I pulled the other two to their feet. “Okay, here’s what we’re going to do. Claire, I need to borrow your bike. Avery and I are going to ride over to his dad’s office. My mom is calling the police. I’m sure they will be there by the time we get there, but I can’t just sit around here and not do anything.”
Claire went to her walk-in closet and rummaged around, pulling a teddy bear out from the depths. She unzipped the little satchel on the teddy bear’s back and pulled out a key, holding it up to show us. “Zel, you don’t have to borrow my bike, we’re taking my mom’s car. C’mon, I’m driving.”
“Have you ever even driven a car before, Claire?” Avery jiggled his leg up and down. Zellie put her hand on his knee to quiet it. He whipped it away from
her touch. He just…couldn’t, not right now, not with all of the crazy shit she was saying and him not being able to tell if it was true or not. It had to be true, why would she make it all up? But…hell if he could believe anything that came out of her mouth. He had trusted her and she had withheld so much…really important freakin’ life altering stuff.
“Uh, yeah, when I was nine my dad let me sit on his lap and steer.” Claire looked at him in the rearview mirror. He scowled. “Okay, no jokey time, got it.”
He leaned over her shoulder from the back seat. “Could you possibly go any faster than three miles an hour? We could have gotten there quicker if we’d ridden bikes!”
“Sor-ry!” She pushed hard on the brake pedal, jerking the three of them forward. “Oops! Well, let’s be thankful it’s an automatic or I would have even more pedals to choose from!” She jammed her foot down on the accelerator. “Hey, Zellie, isn’t that your dad?”
The Wells’ beat up old minivan careened around the corner and sped past them.
“Crap!” Zellie said, looking back as it turned another corner. “Hurry up! We’ve got to get to Avery’s dad before my parents realize that I’m not at your house. If they show up at that office—”
“I know Zellie, people will die.” Claire rolled to a near stop at the intersection and jammed on the accelerator again.
She ran three more stop signs, slowing down in front of Adams Insurance, Avery and Zellie were out of the car before she came to a stop. “Hey, wait for me!” she shouted, shoving the car into park and leaving it running in the middle of the street.
Avery had his keys out, fumbling with them to get the door unlocked. He could hear his parents’ voices inside the office, but couldn’t see anything. All the blinds were drawn. Shit. Zel’s effed up vision thing was going to come true and he couldn’t make his stupid hands work!
Zellie turned to Claire. “Call the police. They should have been here by now.”
Finally steadying his hands enough to unlock the door, Avery stepped inside. His mom turned to face him, her finger on the trigger of a gun. The cow bell on the door clanged as the Wells’ minivan tore down the street and rammed into the back of Claire’s mother’s car.
Chapter Nine
I rushed forward from the sidewalk to the minivan, struggling to open the passenger door, but it wouldn’t budge. Mom was slouched against it. Dad’s body was hunched over the steering wheel, the air bag smothering him, his chest pressing against the horn. Both of my parents were unconscious, their faces bloody and starting to swell. Smoke billowed from under the hood, a fire had started.
“Mom! Mom! Wake up, can you hear me?” I pulled with all my might against the door. It was no use. I ran around the back of the van to Dad’s side. The door opened. Thank you, God. I reached in and pushed him back off of the steering wheel, silencing the horn.
The sound was replaced by screaming. I looked through the smoke to the sidewalk. Claire was lying on the ground passed out. It wasn’t her that was screaming. The phone in her slack hand glittered in the bright fluorescent street lights.
Mrs. Adams was the one that was screaming. She stood, static, over Avery with a gun in her hand. He was sprawled out across the threshold of the door, blood erupting from his chest.
I froze, my hand still pressed against Dad’s body. My eyes burned like hell, but the tears would not come. I freakin’ needed those tears to wash the sight of Avery dying from my eyes. My nostrils stung with pine. Avery. Damn it. Get a hold of yourself, Zellie. Oh, Jesus, Avery! My legs were lead. Where were the police? Someone had to help me!
Staggering into the doorway, Mr. Adams bent down and removed the gun from his wife’s hand. Then, absolutely expressionless, he raised it to her head and pulled the trigger.
I wanted to pass out. Wanted to let the pressure of my brain beating against my skull overtake me. I wanted to give up. The pain of losing all of these people at once was too overwhelming.
My body wouldn’t give in. I felt my instincts claw their way to the surface, take control. It was like what I felt when I was with Avery, only even more animal, filled with more adrenaline.
I moved forward to the sidewalk. Everything blurred in my periphery, my focus pulled in tight. Hyperaware. Claire’s phone lay there glittery, pulsing. I didn’t know where Claire had gone. I concentrated on my actions, picked up the phone. Dialed 9-1-1.
“9-1-1, what’s your emergency?”
The words were out of my mouth before I thought them. “There’s been a really bad car wreck in front of Adams insurance. Cascade Ave. and 2nd St.” I hung up. That was all they needed to know. I threw the phone down.
I made eye contact with Mr. Adams. His eyes grew wide as he dropped the gun. I went to him and put my hands on his chest. I could feel his heart surging, overworking itself. I said what I knew was the truth. “It’s your day to die.”
The gun rose from the sidewalk. It floated in the space between me and Mr. Adams for an instant and then snapped into his hand. The bullet popped out of Mrs. Adams’ head and returned to the gun. She sat up, stood and turned towards her husband. He handed her the gun and backed into his office. She followed in the same manner.
I went to Dad in the van, pushed him onto the steering wheel. The horn blaring again. I made my way around to mom, I untried the door. The fire under the hood came to a halt. The pressure in my head was subsiding. I looked around, feeling like I was almost done…
Avery hopped up. The bullet from his chest spun before him and then was whisked into the office. The door closed. He fumbled with his keys.
I ran to him and put my hand on his. It was over now. My mouth was almost too dry to speak, “Stop.”
I awoke with a series of sounds ricocheting off the inside of my skull. Cow bell, crash, car horn. Scream, shot, sirens. Over and over again. I opened my eyes, looking to my right and left. There were long white curtains surrounding me. I was in a hospital bed. I had no idea how I had gotten there or what time of day it was.
“Zellie, you awake?”
Melody’s face appeared above me, her eyes swollen and red.
“Melody?” I said. My mouth was so dry. “Are Mom and Dad okay?”
“Everyone’s…they’re all down the hall getting checked out. Mom, Dad, Avery, Claire.”
“Avery?” It wasn’t a dream. I didn’t get knocked on the head or something. He was alive. Oh my God, thank you, thank you. I couldn’t catch my breath.
Melody reached down and took my hand. “You saved his life. Don’t you remember?”
“What? No, I…” How much did Melody know? I wasn’t copping to any memories until I could be sure of what really happened. “Avery’s mom accidentally shot him and then his dad shot her, that’s the last thing I remember.”
“Oh, Zellie,” Melody said, tears streaming down her face, pooling at the corners of her upturned mouth. “The visions you have…”
“You know about those?” Claire, damn it, I loved that big-mouthed girl.
She laughed. “Yeah, I do. I always knew you were a freak. But the visions, Zel, they’re not the only thing you can do.”
I dug my elbows into the hospital bed and pushed myself up to a sitting position. What had I done? I tried to summon that feeling again. Raw instinct. It wouldn’t come. “Start at the beginning, why were Mom and Dad even there?”
“Well, I was painting my toenails, y’know that one sorta neon green color I got from Britney for my birthday?”
“Melody.” I gave her my best exasperated big sister look.
“Jeez. All right! I was painting my toenails in our room and Mom came running down the hall and out the front door screaming after Dad to wait for her. So, I went to the front window to see what the hell was going on and Dad had locked Mom out of the minivan, and she’s like, practically ripping the door off and they’re yelling at each other, so mad, madder than I’ve ever seen Dad. He finally lets her in the car and takes off, driving all crazy.”
“He must have heard me talking o
n the phone with Mom and tried to come get me from Claire’s.”
Melody snorted. “Ya, think?”
“Hey!” I pointed to myself. “Lying in a hospital bed, cut me a break on my slowness.”
“Sorry.” She shrugged her shoulders. “Everything else I know is all according to Claire, but I have to say that I believe her because a lot of people are alive that shouldn’t be. She says that she came to when she heard the gunshot, Mr. Adams shooting Mrs. Adams. She sat up when she realized what had happened and crawled around the corner to take cover.”
“Thanks, Melody, I’ll take it from here. No need to make me sound like more of a tool than you already were.” Claire came to my side, leaned over and kissed me on the forehead. “Welcome back.” She had a large white bandage wrapped around her head. She looked like crap.
“Hey. Are you okay?” I asked.
Claire took my hand. “I’m totally fine. You know what they say about short people and their center of gravity being closer to the ground? I’m pretty sure that anyone who breaks their fall with their head gets one of these nifty gauze dealies.” She tapped herself on the forehead and then flinched. “I have a wee concussion, some cuts, nothing to worry about. You on the other hand…well, of course you look hot despite your major psychic meltdown, you bitch.”
I tested the waters. “You saw everything?”
“If you’re referring to how you stopped time and rewound it, then yeah, I saw everything.” Claire gave me an exaggerated wink.
Well, forget testing, I guess I was in cannonball territory now. “So what happened after…the rewind? That’s the last thing I remember.”
“After you passed out?” Claire asked.
I nodded and brought my hand to my head. I was wearing a bandage too. It didn’t even hurt. I must be on some serious ibuprofen.
Claire continued. “Your parents got out of the car and ran over to you, and Avery and I, we were all around you. Then Mrs. Adams opened the door of the office and said ‘Mike is dead and I didn’t kill him.’”
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