by Kevin Ryan
Nightscape
( Roswell’’ - 6 )
Kevin Ryan
TV Series Placement: Post-Season 3 / Few weeks after "A New Beginning"While traveling through Colorado, Liz sees a vision of Maria being chased through a large house. Needless to say, the van then mysteriously breaks down right in front of a creepy old mansion. Tired of being pushed around by fate, the group decides to spend the night. But what they find hidden inside the house forces them all to face a powerful enemy, Max to make a decision about his leadership abilities, and Liz to reconsider her role in the group now that her powers are developing. Looks like the battles they fought back in Roswell aren't entirely over. And while the group knows they have changed their destiny by leaving Roswell, they begin to wonder how much they are really in control. Liz can see the future, but when they act on her visions, are they changing or simply carrying out their destiny?
Kevin Ryan
Nightscape
(Roswell’’-06)
TV Series Placement: Post-Season 3 / Few weeks after "A New Beginning"
July 2003
On The Road…To Danger
While traveling through Colorado, Liz sees a vision of Maria being chased through a large house. Needless to say, the van then mysteriously breaks down right in front of a creepy old mansion. Tired of being pushed around by fate, the group decides to spend the night. But what they find hidden inside the house forces them all to face a powerful enemy, Max to make a decision about his leadership abilities, and Liz to reconsider her role in the group now that her powers are developing.
Looks like the battles they fought back in Roswell aren't entirely over. And while the group knows they have changed their destiny by leaving Roswell, they begin to wonder how much they are really in control. Liz can see the future, but when they act on her visions, are they changing or simply carrying out their destiny?
From the television series developed by Jason Katims
SIMON PULSE New York London Toronto Sydney Singapore
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as "unsold and destroyed" to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this "stripped book."
This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real locales are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author's imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
First Simon Pulse edition July 2003
™ © 2003 Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation, Regency Entertainment (USA) Inc., and Monarchy Enterprises B.V
All rights reserved.
SIMON PULSE
An imprint of Simon Schuster Children's Publishing Division 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020
AH rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.
Printed in the United States of America 10 987654321
Library of Congress Control Number 2003100465 ISBN 0-689-85521-4
Prologue
Isabel watched the road from the window of the van. She stared straight out, and the road flew past her field of vision. When she was bored with that, she could track a single spot a few feet away and watch that one pass more slowly. At least it gave the illusion of moving at a lower speed.
It was a child's game, one that would distract her for seconds at a time. When she was a girl, she would stare out the window watching the road go by and her mind would fly off to a thousand different directions… all of them fun, all of them exciting, and most of them having to do with the future. Now she was living that little girl's future and all she wanted to do was crawl back into that past life.
Isabel wasn't a girl anymore. She was a married woman… a married woman who had just lost her husband. Would she ever see Jesse again? She didn't think so. The memory of him pulled at her. How much of herself had she left in Roswell? Isabel had had plenty of time in the
last two weeks to ponder that question. She didn't like any of the answers she'd come up with.
Too much, she thought. Too many parts of herself that were good and full of new hope. What was left of her felt shredded, and the pieces didn't form a whole person… at least not a person she wanted to know, let alone be.
Finding no relief on the road, Isabel scanned the inside of the van. In the front, Max and Liz sat in contented silence. Isabel felt a flash of envy at Max's happiness. He had brought his life with him, or at least the part that mattered most to him: Liz.
Even Michael and Maria had each other. Of course they argued and got on each other's nerves, but that was no different from how it had been in Roswell. Kyle had come for his own reasons: He was running from a dead end future in Roswell. She knew he had come at least partly for her as well. There was a time when that would have fed her ego. Now, she just questioned his judgment.
Her past. Her hopes. Jesse. Silly schoolgirl dreams. They were chasing her, and Max couldn't drive fast enough to outrun them.
Ghosts.
There was only one kind of relief that Isabel had known on this trip, and she felt it tugging gently at the edge of her awareness. She allowed herself to drop deeper and finally she felt sleep take her. She didn't fight it. In fact, she embraced it fiercely…
Or desperately, she thought.
Isabel dreamed she was being pulled somewhere. She didn't want to go. She was afraid, but she felt herself going, anyway.
Then she realized she wasn't being pulled anymore. She was walking. It was her own legs that were taking her. She was no less afraid, but she felt relief that she was at least in control.
Looking down at her legs, she saw that she was wearing a dress and… those shoes. Isabel realized where she was. She looked up again, and sure enough she was on the dance floor… it was the gym at school.
The prom.
The room was full of kids from school. Isabel knew that Max and Michael were in here somewhere, but she knew it wasn't them she had come to see. Suddenly, she wanted to dance. After all, except for a few dances with her new husband at the wedding, she hadn't danced since the prom, the night that everything had changed for her.
"Can I have this dance?" a voice behind her said.
Isabel turned and saw Alex, looking just as he had at the prom. He was smiling and holding out a hand to her.
She took his hand and felt the tears come freely to her eyes.
"Hey, hey. There's no need for that. It's tough on my ego, you know," he said.
Isabel grabbed him tightly and fell into a silent, slow dance with him. When she felt she was composed enough, she leaned back and looked at him. He was smiling at her, looking at her the way he had at the prom… and a thousand times before that. She hadn't seen it for a long time. Then, she hadn't taken the look seriously. But finally she had known what the look meant, because at the prom she had looked at him the same way. "Is it really you, Alex?" Isabel asked.
"Do you really doubt it?" he asked.
She looked at him closely. He looked like Alex and, more importantly, he felt like Alex. "But is it really you, or is it me
imagining you? Imagining what you'd look like, what you'd say?" Isabel asked. She realized her voice sounded a little desperate, but she didn't care.
"I don't know, Isabel. I can't tell the difference," he said, and shrugged.
"I haven't seen you like this in so long," Isabel said.
After Alex died, she had seen him in her mind and talked
with him often, but it had been a while. In fact, she couldn't remember the last time she had seen him. Seen him or dreamed him? She couldn't tell the difference.
"I've been here,"
he said. "You just stopped coming around. You don't call, you don't write… "
"I know, I'm sorry. It's been so crazy…," she said, but it sounded weak to her own ears.
"What with, falling in love with jesse and getting married to him?" Alex said, a smile on his lips.
Isabel didn't know how to respond.
"It's okay. You had to move on. I'm stuck here, you don't have to be. And he seemed like a nice enough guy, if you like that Latin GQ type," he said.
"jealous?" she teased.
"Duh," he said.
"Aren't you supposed to be above that now?" she said.
Alex only shrugged.
Isabel smiled. "He was good to me," she said.
"I know. I want you to be happy, and if those kind of freakish good looks made you happy, so be it," he said.
"Michael said he just wasn't the one. And maybe he was right. I left fesse, and I left him because I could leave him. I love him, but I was able to go."
Alex nodded as if he understood.
Nightktscape
"I never forgot this night," she said.
"Me either," he replied. "Come on."
Alex led her to the side of the gym. On the way she noticed that everyone else had disappeared. Now it was just the two of them, alone in the gym. He stopped in front of the punch bowl and poured two cups, giving her one. "It's funny the things you miss," he said as he raised his glass.
Isabel touched hers to his. "To old friends," she said.
"To the future," he replied pointedly. Alex took a long sip, finishing the punch in one gulp.
"Isabel, you know you have to move on," he said. But as he spoke he was looking at her intently, "I mean really move on," he said. He paused for a moment and said, "It's getting late."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"It means I have to move on too," he explained, "but I can't if you keep me here."
"I have tried. I don't know how to," she said. She was lying and afraid that he could see the lie on her face. Keeping him to herself was selfish, but she couldn't let go. She couldn't give him up yet.
"Okay," he said gently, "just try, okay?"
Isabel nodded, and then he leaned down and kissed her softly, and sweetly. "It's getting late," he said.
Then Alex disappeared. The room went dark, and Isabel was alone.
Then there were voices. They were talking, calling her to them.
"How about the deli?" someone said.
Isabel opened her eyes. She was in the van. They were parked on the street in a town somewhere.
"Deli food sounds good to me," she said quickly.
1
"Relax, I'll be just a minute," Michael said. Then he leveled a serious look at Max, who nodded. Something was going on… that much, Liz could see. And she was instantly alert. They had covered hundreds of miles in the last three days. They were in Washington State, and Roswell was far behind them now. When they had left town on the night of their high school graduation, they had assumed they had left many of their problems behind.
A small town on the southern border of Colorado named Stonewall had shown them that that wasn't true. Still, as they increased their distance from Roswell and Stonewall, Liz felt herself relaxing. The mood in the car had lightened, and the spirits in the car had been high… remarkably high, considering that they had just escaped assassination by the Special Unit on graduation night and an encounter with a new and malevolent alien race in Stonewall. They had done some real good in Stonewall. They had also taken on a powerful group of aliens and won.
They had won.
Four women were now back with their families, and the aliens would not likely return. Now what? Liz wondered, considering the look that had just passed between Max and Michael. "Max?" Liz said.
He simply raised his hand and shook his head, keeping his eye on the rearview mirror. Liz scanned the town around them but didn't see anything unusual. They were in a medium-sized town, where they had eaten lunch at a local deli and then picked up some supplies at the auto parts store.
It had all felt normal. In fact, it had all felt good.
In the days since their experience in Stonewall, Liz and the others had felt indestructible. Even at the time, Liz had known that the feeling was false… and dangerous. Alex had been one of them and he had died. Kyle had almost died again in Stonewall. Liz had been taken by the aliens, almost forever. And then Max and Michael had nearly been spirited away by their ship.
Liz knew they had not been indestructible then. They had been very, very lucky.
She watched Max's face for clues to what was going on. The others said he was a closed book, but rarely to Liz. She understood Max more deeply than even Isabel did, she knew. But now, he was unreadable, even to her.
When she heard the sound of the side door of the van opening, she nearly jumped out of her seat. She spun around to see Michael's face peering into the van. Like Max, his face was neutral.
"Well, are you going to just stand there, Spaceboy?" Maria called from the rear.
Then Michael smiled. Liz turned to Max and saw that he was doing the same.
"Nope," Michael said. But before he stepped inside, he pushed something toward Maria. "Here," he said, handing her a large gift.
For a few seconds, Maria was too surprised to speak any actual words. Finally, she took the guitar and said, "Oh my God, Michael."
Though Liz didn't know much about guitars, she thought that it looked like a good one. It was acoustic and had a rounded back, like one she had seen Maria admire many times at the music store near home.
Michael was smiling. No, he is beaming, Liz thought.
"I got you some picks, a tuning thingy, and a carrying bag," Michael said, holding out a bag. Then he stepped inside the van and sat next to Maria.
As soon as he sat, Maria gave him a firm kiss on the cheek. "I can't believe you did this," she said. Then she struck out quickly, smacking him in the chest. "I can't believe you did this," she repeated.
"What?" he said.
"First of all, we're short on room in here. And second, we can't afford this," she said, holding out the guitar.
It was true, Liz knew. They had made some money in Stonewall, but it was disappearing fast even though the six of them had always shared a single motel room at night and they had made sure they didn't spend too much on food.
"First of all," Michael said, his voice tight, "we can stow it in the back. And second of all, Maxwell and I came up with a new source of funds."
That surprised Liz. And she knew she wasn't alone. She shot Max a look. He responded with a smile.
"What new source?" Maria asked.
"Max?" Isabel said from the back.
"We should have thought of it sooner," Max said.
A sudden realization hit Liz. She turned to Max and said, "You made and sold some diamonds."
He nodded.
"When?" she asked.
"When we stopped yesterday. We picked up some coal and then sold the diamonds I made," Max said.
"That's dangerous. Selling loose diamonds is bound to arouse suspicion," Liz said.
"That's why we sold them at the pawn shop and not the jewelry store," Michael said. "The owner was happy to get them for a good price and didn't ask any questions."
"Do you still have yours?" Max whispered to Liz.
Liz's hand went reflexively to her pocket, where she kept the diamond he had made for her that night a few weeks ago on her roof. The night she had decided that any future she had would always include him. The night he had asked her to marry him. She smiled and nodded her response. "You should still be careful," she said.
"Always," Max said.
"I guess this takes care of our money problems for a while," Maria said.
"We spent most of what we made already. We didn't want to get greedy the first time," Michael said.
There wasn't much room there, Liz knew. It was already tight with the few supplies they had bought, including some tools and auto parts K
yle had chosen.
"We figured the guitar was worth it since it counts as entertainment for all of us," Michael said.
"Well, thank you," Maria said. "This was very… sweet."
Max started the van and they pulled away.
"Any other surprises?" Liz asked.
To her surprise, something flashed across Max's face. "What is it?" she asked.
"Ah… another entertainment expense. Kyle can explain it," he said.
"I picked up a new stereo. I thought I would install it tonight when we stop," Kyle said.
So that is what Kyle bought at the auto store, Liz thought.
"Not that we don't all enjoy listening to AM radio on a three-inch speaker, but we thought it was time to broaden our horizons," Michael said.
Liz shook her head. The guys had managed to surprise them. And she had thought secrets would be impossible given the close quarters they were living in now. Well, she and Maria had arranged a surprise of their own, but the boys wouldn't find out about that until later.
As Max found his way back to the two-lane road they were taking, Liz could hear Maria tuning the guitar.
"Michael, do you see that black SUV?" Max asked, his voice tight. Michael obviously heard the same thing and spun his head around to look back through one of the van's two rear windows.
"It was on the road this morning," Michael said.
"Before we stopped," Max said.
"Maybe they stopped too," Maria said, with uncertainty.
"For exactly the same amount of time as we did?" Michael asked.
"Coincidence?" Maria said, but there was no conviction in her voice.
"What's the plan, Maxwell?" Michael said.
Max hesitated for a moment before he answered. Just before graduation he had said that he was done making decisions for the group. He had said the same thing in Stonewall. Liz understood why: He knew that, under his leadership his, Michael's, and Isabel's home planet had fallen. And too many bad things had happened in the last few years. Max blamed himself for all of them, including Alex's death. It wasn't fair, but that was Max. Now he was determined not to take a leadership position.