As she stood there in that spot, remembering, Elena was sure she knew why she had needed to come home. Evenfall had Sought. He had Sought and found her. He had Sought and found the bar where Phillip, and even Nathaniel, were often present. Who had Evenfall first Sought and found? She had the awful feeling she knew. She had held the picture of her in her hand. She ran inside to find her father and tell him of her discovery.
She called his name, but got no answer. The house was so quiet. She called again, running through the rooms. She tripped over and fell hard. Looking around, horrified, she realized it was her father she had tripped over. He was lying on the floor. She crawled over to him, gently shaking him. No response. She stepped outside calling for help. Screaming for it. A child stepped out from the trees. She recognized him as one of her father’s students.
“Your mother sent me,” he said in a frightened voice. “She fell down. Right before she did, she said, go Sing to Michael. I call him Mr. Michael, but she just said Michael. And then she fell,” his eyes were filled with tears, and his lip quivered.
“You did exactly the right thing,” Elena said wishing she could Project confidence, or encouragement, anything positive. Her own voice was shaking, and she willed her tears to stop, quickly wiping her face dry. As she led him in to the house she continued, “I think it’s best if you come Sing to Mr. Michael inside. He fell down, too.”
He stopped short when he saw his teacher lying there. He was terrified, so much so that Elena feared he wouldn’t be able to find his talent. She stepped back as far as she could and still see them. “Think of his music. Let it flow through you,” she encouraged using words she had heard her father use. Desperately, she tried to remember long ago overheard lessons, but before she could, the little boy began to Sing.
He had perhaps the most beautiful voice she had ever heard. He was not Singing words, rather he was Singing the notes of her father’s Song. It was as if the Twist itself was flowing through this young boy. The resonance was so painful that Elena feared she would need to step away or risk distracting the boy, but she was too afraid to look away for even a moment. For long moments, as she listened to the boy’s angelic voice, she feared she was witnessing the Twist transferring from one Bard to the next. Impotently, she could only watch and wonder if her father was dying before her eyes. She forced her feet to stand still. Approaching them now would not help. She would only make things worse.
“Go, Elena,” she heard her father’s voice whisper. He remained lying on the floor but he had turned his head to look at her. “Forgive us for not being able to accompany you. Go, Elena, and stay safe,” he commanded, his voice barely audible but still forceful. “You carry our love for you, never forget,” he said emphatically. “We will recover. Go now, little one.”
She let the tears fall. “I love you, daddy. Tell mom, too. I love you both so much,” she sobbed. This could be the last time she saw her father. And her mother. Elena tried not to think about her mother lying somewhere unconscious. She wished she had had the chance to ask the child where he had been and if someone was there to help her mother, but there had been no time. To the brave little boy who was still Singing, she said, “Thank you. I can’t thank you enough.” She had never learned the child’s name. She wasn’t certain he even heard her. She grabbed her packed bag and fled the house.
Elena ran without stopping. She ran as she cried, and she finally made it to Twist. She didn’t dare pause. She stepped sideways in to the Twist. Once again, she felt the sensation of movement and the passage of time. She tried her best to collect her thoughts. She needed to think, but she was nearly paralyzed with fear! Worried for her parents, for Phillip, Monica, Jacob, worried of what she would find when she returned. Only now did she realize she had hurt her wrist. It must have happened when she fell over her father. She rubbed it. There was some swelling, but she thought it must only be bruised. Abruptly, she felt as if the Twist spit her out. And just like that she was back in the trees behind the mall. Impatiently, she set about safely leaving. Following the steps that were, thankfully, so ingrained in her she didn’t have to think to perform them. As soon as she could, she would have to figure out how much time had passed.
Chapter 29
The house was so quiet. Jacob wasn’t home, true, but still. It was so quiet. She hadn’t realized how much she had gotten used to hearing Phillip’s singing or playing, or Elena working in the kitchen. Or how much she would miss that. Damn the girl, she thought for what must have been the hundredth time. For what must have been the thousandth time, Monica wished for some word from Elena. Or better yet, for her to come walking through the front door.
Elena had implied she left for a family emergency, but Monica wasn’t buying it. She could not shake the feeling that Elena had left because of all the bizarre happenings. These Spring and Summer semesters had been ones for the record books. The break-in last week only solidified her opinion of that. The police called it an attempted burglary, but it was Elena’s bedroom window that had been broken into. It felt personal to Monica. It was not an easy window to get to. Sure it was on the first floor, but there were at least two other windows also on the first floor that a thief wouldn’t have to get over the fence in order to get in the house. It was a tall fence. How was a burglar going to get anything of any size over it? Maybe they were going for only small electronics that could fit in a bag. What did she know? She had certainly never entertained breaking and entering as a source of income. The burglar had no chance of getting into Elena’s room. The noise had woken Phillip immediately and he scared the would-be thief off. Phillip had taken to sleeping in Elena’s room since the moment they all discovered their notes. Poor guy. He was a ghost. He looked like hell these days. She would have lost money on that bet. Phillip’s heart wasn’t the one she thought would be broken.
It was really bugging her that Elena’s car had also been burglarized. Everything seemed centered on Elena. Once again, Monica felt like she was missing something. And predictably, that damn headache was starting back.
Even someone you trust can lie to you.
Monica wasn’t sure why that crazy statement kept popping up in her head, but she let her brain relax and repeated it out loud. Sitting there on the couch letting her mind wonder where it would, the headache actually started to abate.
Trust him, but don’t believe everything he says.
She leaned her head back and stared up at the ceiling. She could almost hear Elena’s voice saying those words. Almost smell the coffee from that morning. Abruptly, Monica sat up. He had asked where Elena kept her valuables. He had somehow worked it in to the conversation - something about needing a storage space and asking if her roommates had one. But then he had asked specifically about Elena. Where did she keep her valuables? Monica had gotten angry. “Why the hell do you want to know?” she remembered asking.
He had smiled. “No reason. Forget about it. Trust me. You don’t need to give this a second thought.”
Why had she not given it a second thought? And a third and a fourth? Why had she not told anyone? She grabbed her car keys. Jacob was at the bar. She hoped like hell that Nathaniel was, too. He had some questions to answer. For completely different reasons than her usual ones, she was thankful for Jacob’s shoulders and biceps. They would get answers.
Finally, the cab pulled up to the house. Impatiently, she paid the driver. Under normal circumstances, she appreciated safe and cautious driving. Today, not so much. She grabbed all of her bags. Thankfully, she had not been gone so long that they were shipped too far away. She had only had to make one stop to retrieve them. With just her worries and the world’s slowest cab driver to keep her company, the time had crawled by.
Elena hurried up the walkway into the house. Everything was so quiet and still. She would have thought she was alone, but for what she Sensed. He was so hurt. “Phillip?” she called out cautiously.
He came out of her bedroom. He looked as if he had slept in his clothes, and he needed to shave.
Had he lost weight, too?
“Damn you,” he said from across the room. “Damn you, Elena. For sixteen days I have,” his voice broke off. She didn’t even try to block his emotions. She wouldn’t hide from what she had put him through. There were tears in his eyes, but somehow he wasn’t crying. She was. She could hardly see as she dropped her bags.
“I’m so sorry,” she choked out. “I’m so very sorry.” She started to go to him, but he was there before she could take a step.
He pushed her up against the wall as he roughly kissed her. “Doan you ever leave me,” he said between kisses. “Where you go, I go.” She tried to break the kiss to answer him, to explain, but he held her head and kissed her deeper. She stopped fighting the kiss. She needed him as much as he needed her. They began ripping at each other’s clothes. Shamelessly, selfishly, she let him take her there on the floor. Phillip was inside her pumping deep and hard. “Keep your secrets,” he grated out between thrusts, “if you need.” He didn’t break rhythm as he kept talking, “I’ll follow you where you need to go.” He was panting hard, “But we stay together.” Elena was nodding her head. “Say it,” he demanded.
“Together. Always,” she managed, and then he was kissing her again.
She could feel Phillip shaking as he held her. Silently, he started to help her up. Elena winced as she tried to push herself up. Immediately, Phillip was there cradling her swollen wrist. Guilt. “Ah, cher. I didn’t mean-“
She interrupted, “You didn’t hurt me. I fell earlier. It’s not your fault,” she said crying again. “I hurt you, though.” She had. She could still feel it. He meant what he said. She was certain that he wouldn’t even ask questions. Not where she went, not why. But it hurt him. It cost him not to. “Phillip, I am going to tell you everything. I promise I am going to explain it all. But we are in danger and time is not on our side. Where are Monica and Jacob? They are in danger, too.”
He helped her up as she spoke, each pulling their clothes back in place. Phillip shook his head saying, “I haven’t seen them. I doan know. I think I saw them yesterday.” His face looked haggard as he finished, “I haven’t been paying much attention to,” he shrugged and then finished simply with, “anything.”
She hugged him tightly. “I missed you, too. So much. But we need to find them.” She dialed Monica’s cell, but got no answer. Then she tried Jacob. Same thing. “I’m really worried,” she said heading up the stairs to their rooms. She opened each door, continuing to talk to Phillip, “Nathaniel and Samantha are both involved, I’m pretty sure.” She couldn’t tell if Jacob’s bed had been slept in. His room was pretty messy. “I am almost certain that they knew Evenfall.” Monica’s room was neat, but really didn’t tell her much either. Elena wasn’t sure exactly what she had expected to find. “I think Samantha may even be the unidentified female from the hospital. We need to find them,” she finished.
Phillip was standing there looking at her like she was crazy, but he didn’t ask any questions. “I’ll call the bar to see if Jacob is there.” He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number. Elena listened as he asked about Jacob and watched as Phillip shook his head at her. “He didn’t show up for his shift today.” Phillip was becoming worried as well. Jacob would never not show up to work without calling. “Elena, I doan understand what you’re saying. You think Samantha and Nathaniel are involved in murdering that guy?”
“I am afraid that, yes, they are,” she answered him. He was still looking at her like she was crazy when her cell phone rang. She looked at it, smiling in relief. “It’s Monica,” she said as she answered it. “Monica. Where are you? Is Jacob with you?” But it was not Monica who answered her. Without saying a word, she put the phone on speaker.
“I’m sure your boyfriend is with you. Have him come, too,” Nathaniel’s voice came across friendly. He repeated the address. “He’s wanted here as well. It will be a little reunion for the roommates. Don’t show up, and you will regret it.” The line went dead.
“Elena, what the hell is goan on?” Phillip asked her. “Was that Nathaniel?”
“It was,” she answered him, and she could tell that he was getting worried, too. “Phillip, please get changed, and get your guitar. I will explain everything on the way there. I need to look up this address.” He agreed after getting her to promise to let him know ‘what the hell was going on’ as soon as he did. As he left the room, Elena hesitated. Should she call the Speaker? She had felt Nathaniel try to use Voice on the phone. He wasn’t strong enough to have changed the course of a police murder investigation. Despite her mother’s Vision, she couldn’t bring herself to trust the Speaker. And she had not stayed to hear of the last one, she reminded herself with more than a little guilt and a fervent prayer for her parents. For all she knew, the newest Vision implicated the Speaker. She went with her gut. She decided not to notify him.
Phillip had changed and had his guitar strapped across his back by the time she had the address. It was in a warehouse, or rather, one warehouse in a collection of them. She showed Phillip the map she had pulled up online. Neither had ever been there. It was just outside of town and would take at least 20 minutes to get there, maybe 30. This time, she drove.
As soon as they were in the car, she began. “My family lives in a Twist. It is not certain, even in our histories, which came first, the Twist or here. If you look back at legends of early explorers, they could be describing travels in and out of Twists. It is hard to explain exactly what a Twist is, but all of them are connected somehow to today’s time and place by a Bard. My father is one. His Song holds the Twist in place and also allows access in to the Twist,” she continued on while Phillip kept quiet but looked as if he had been sucker punched. Elena talked until her throat was dry, trying to fit in all of the information she thought was most important right now. She finished with, “We are just regular people, but with special abilities. I am called Empathic. I can Sense other’s emotions, and I see different emotions as different colors. There are levels associated with each talent, but those details aren’t important right now. You have a talent, too. You can Sing. With training, or I don’t know, maybe just time, you could be a Bard as well.” Elena stopped talking to make sure she was taking the correct turn. They were getting close.
She was certain that Phillip had a million questions, but the one he came up with surprised her. “What talent helps you grow things, like a garden?”
“That sounds like a Naturalist. They help the area around them flourish, almost like they make it. . .” she paused searching for the right words.
“Like it was always meant to be, if absolutely everything went right?” Phillip finished for her.
Nodding, she glanced at him in surprise. “You know one?”
“Knew. My grandmother,” he answered. “I think my grandfather tried to tell me right before he died, which was right after my grandmother died.” He looked at her questioningly.
“You could be right. It sounds like they were Bound. Eventually, one is unable to survive without the other.” She had so much more to say, but they were almost there. “I’m sorry, Phillip. I’m sure you have so many more questions, but I need to tell you what I know of Evenfall, Nathaniel, and Samantha.” She started with her mother’s Visions, and told Phillip every detail that she could think of the last few months, including Nathaniel’s ability. She wasn’t sure what could end up being important, but he definitely needed to know that.
She finished just as they drove up to the warehouses. The gate had been left carelessly open, so Elena drove through. Phillip looked around, pointing out a light in one of the buildings ahead. Elena drove close to it, but stopped a ways back when Phillip suggested. She put the car in park. “Elena, I said earlier that where you go, I follow. I doan understand much of this, but I meant what I said. Now, cher, I just spent the last sixteen days in hell worried ‘bout you. Just what do you plan for us to do in there? Are we just goan to walk in blindly? They have Monica and Jacob. Are we just going to give th
em us, too?” he demanded.
No. Elena had a plan. Granted, it wasn’t much of one, but there was no time left, and no one left to call for help. After hearing it, Phillip agreed, reluctantly, but he agreed. He kissed her roughly, maybe a bit desperately. His faith in her made her strong. She would do this for all of them – Monica, Jacob, herself and Phillip, maybe even poor Evenfall. She would do this for them, but she could do this because of Phillip.
Chapter 30
Elena stepped up to the doorway and banged on it. She pulled at the garage door, first shaking the handle loudly, then pulling the door halfway up only to let it slam back down. Finally, she got the door all the way up and stepped through calling out, “Hello?” She could Sense people to her left. Turning right, she called out again as she walked into the warehouse. She touched some cans that were stacked, but they were too heavy. Just as well. Knocking them over would probably be overkill anyway. She was starting to Sense disdain, she thought, though at least one person was still angry. There was also a lot of fear. Trying to keep her own fear in check, she did her best to keep her worries over Monica, Jacob, and especially Phillip in the back of her mind. She needed to keep herself open and receptive.
She called out another “Hello. Who’s there?” and finally got an answer.
“We’re over here,” Nathaniel called out. His voice sounded the same as ever, but impatience spiked strong. “I thought you were a brunette.” Derision and arrogance. The words matched what he felt, but the tone he said them was as open and friendly as ever. It made Elena shiver. “Come on over this way. Don’t keep us waiting anymore, sweet thing,” he called out again.
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