Right.
I felt a pang of guilt as I thought about my mom, not knowing what had happened to me. The idea of facing her was worse.
“You’ll have to go home sooner or later,” Tyler called to me.
“I know.” And I wanted to go home. I just didn’t want to explain. I had no idea what I would tell them. Where had I been? I could only imagine the length of time I would be grounded when I returned.
I didn’t think they’d buy the whole fighting aliens explanation.
Chapter Fourteen
As we pulled up to the yard, I was surprised to see how light and non-threatening the warehouse appeared in the afternoon. The yard closed at 4:30, and it was 5:00 when we arrived.
“Are the others here?”
“No, but soon. I texted Sarah. She’s jogging from my place and will stop by Jonathan’s and Dee’s on her way.”
We jumped simultaneously when a large black dog lunged against the tall chain link fence beside us, rattling the metal.
“You again,” I spoke to Whiskey. Or was it Lilac? The second appeared from the shadows with a low growl. I considered my last encounter with them. Would they remember me? I imagined Sarah’s calm touch on their large heads. “I suppose we’re waiting out here?”
“We could probably outrun them.” He studied the snarling animals. “But you’re still recovering.”
“Yup.” Neither one of us moved to climb the bars. We perched on the curb to wait.
“So, can I see it?” Tyler extended one hand. “Or do we need to wait until everyone else is here?”
I gave him my backpack. He set it on his lap, pulled back the zipper, and drew out the orb. It didn’t seem as bright in the sunlight, but it still glowed.
“Wow!” He sighed. “It feels like it belongs to me.”
“Me, too. It must be a World Maker thing.”
He turned it over in his hand, then held it up while running his fingertips along the surface. “What do you think it does?” He looked up from the radiant light.
“I don’t know. Elliot didn’t tell you? I thought he told you everything.”
“Guess not.” He continued to study the orb in his hands, transferring it between his hands.
I hesitated before reaching out to touch his arm. “I remembered something else there.” My newest memory to surfaced: Jared stood with Elliot, staring down at the orb. “I think Jared was trying to protect me.”
“From what?”
“I can’t remember.”
“Rachel, he shot you.” As if I needed to be reminded. “Touch it with me.” He held it out to me.
I put my hand on top of it. Instantly, the power amplified. Our energies sparked, and the orb’s light intensified.
An approaching car interrupted our concentration. I pulled my hand back. “Maybe we should wait for the others.”
He handed the orb back to me, standing as I slipped it into the school bag and zipped it closed. A yellow taxi pulled up, and Sarah and Dee climbed out.
“Thought I’d save my strength.” Sarah shrugged. Dee paid for it. “Cab seemed easier. Jonathan said he’d catch up later. Family eats early.”
As the cab pulled away, Dee turned to me. “I can’t believe you’re okay.” She examined my face, then shook her head. “I thought you were going to die.”
“Thanks, by the way.” There was no way I would have made it without them.
“Are you going home now?” Dee asked.
“You can’t stay with us,” Sarah interrupted. “I don’t want to share my room.”
“You could always stay with me.” Tyler’s voice sounded smooth and low.
I glanced at him.
The corners of his mouth turned up.
I cleared my throat. “Thanks, but I need to go home. My mom and Mikey are freaked, and they’ve obviously called my dad and his wife by now.” I thought about Evelyn. I wondered if she’d already planned my funeral again.
Sarah was the first over the fence, Dee close behind her. The barking stopped as they landed on the other side. Dee gestured for us to enter. We were up and over the fence in moments.
The warehouse was like a second home by now. As we walked inside, I couldn’t help but smile at the dent in the wall made when I threw Sarah into it.
She followed my gaze, then rolled her eyes. “Yes, you’re very special.”
We gathered in an uneven circle.
Sarah frowned at me. “So, how did it go?” As she asked, she touched my forearm and looked for my memory. Dee and Tyler grasped my other arm, wanting to see, too.
The light seeped out of Jared’s closet. I picked up the orb. Energy surged as my hand made contact. All eyes shifted to the backpack slung over my shoulder.
From Tyler, we caught a quick flash of how the orb felt in his hands.
Dee sighed. “Can I?”
Sarah disconnected and slid the pack from my shoulder. She pulled out the orb. “It’s heavier than it looks.” She hefted it. “But it feels—good.”
“My turn.” Dee held out her hand. Sarah eyed her reluctantly but turned it over. As soon as she touched it, Dee’s expression lit up.
“Think it’s some kind of a weapon?” Tyler crossed his arms.
“Or maybe a connector, like these.” Sarah held up her wrist, the bracelet catching the light from the orb.
They had the same sheen. I touched the orb’s surface. Sarah and Tyler did the same. Our energies flickered and ignited. We hadn’t been looking for them, but they were visible in and around our bodies. Our auras were radiant, lighting the room.
Sarah gasped, staring wide-eyed. She’d never seen our energies before. “They’re beautiful.” She smiled.
They always were, but the orb made them so much more alive. Brighter than when they’d healed me. Shimmering out and around us, hazy edges blended together like a painting. The ball reflected the colors, throwing hues on the ceiling and walls. Whatever the orb did was undeniably powerful and meant for us. We still didn’t know anything about it.
I focused on Elliot again, on the moment he handed me the orb. Everyone instantly understood what I was trying to do.
They linked their thoughts to mine and helped me sort through the memories. Our collective excitement expanded as we watched Elliot hand me the orb. Frowning in concern, Jared stood beside me. Elliot’s words were carried away by the wind, but we caught enough to know the orb was the key. Take it with you, he said. Do not be afraid.
I had the distinct impression what he told me was that we could win.
“No. Not that we could win,” Sarah said quietly, reading my memory of myself. “That we will win.” She was right.
Elliot wanted us to believe that we would win, that humanity would not lose to the creatures. World Maker wanted us to have this world; he chose it specifically for us—and us for it. He wouldn’t leave us without a way to protect it. At least, that’s what Elliot wanted us to think. Whether or not it was accurate remained to be seen.
“So do we go back in?” Dee’s voice was cautious but ready.
Whatever this was, it had changed her, too. The last time I’d seen her, Dee had been convinced of the hopelessness of our task, of the certainty of death. Now, although she accepted the possibility of dying in the other dimension, an unmistakable air of hope rose in her.
This globe, and Elliot’s reassurances, made a tangible difference to all of us.
They stared expectantly at me, waiting for my answer.
I didn’t respond. Instead, I went back to the memory. There had to be more there. Their strengthened energies brought me the closest I’d been to remembering. It teased on the edge of my consciousness. Just a little deeper, and it would be there. A little deeper.
They focused with me, and their orb-enhanced energies were suddenly enough.
Jared and I were simply two teenagers looking up at the meteor shower in the sky. A man—Elliot—approached us through the light rain, calling out to Jared as he neared. In his hands, he held the glowing o
rb.
Jared glanced over and his expression hardened. “Stay away from me,” he said, his voice ice. I’d never heard Jared like that, not in all the years I’d known him. Jared was warm, gentle. Even when he was angry, he was never cold. “Stay away. Do you hear?”
Elliot interrupted him with an angry shout. “People are coming for her!” I winced at the sound of his voice and took Jared’s hand.
Who was this man? His words were incomprehensible.
Only seconds ago, I’d been immersed in the stars, enthralled by the changing light.
“Let’s go,” I whispered.
Jared pulled me closer to him, his eyes trained on Elliot. “They’re coming for Rachel?”
“Tonight.”
“I didn’t know she was—”
Elliot cut him off, nearing us. “I know you didn’t, but they do. And they’re coming. They know I’ve chosen Rachel to lead.” Understanding dawned in Jared’s eyes.
“What are you talking about?” I asked. Without another word, Elliot reached past Jared and touched my arm. He was a stranger to me, but he showed me, then, what I was to do, what I was to become. No wonder I’d blocked it out.
I looked at Jared for an explanation, expecting to see him feeling like I was: frightened, overwhelmed, shocked. But Jared wasn’t any of those things. With his brows deeply furrowed and his mouth drawn in a line, he looked angry. And more than that: something akin to remorse was painted in his features. What did he have to be sorry for? I touched his face as I peered up into his eyes, trying to comprehend the grief that clouded them.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered, his fingers tightening on my arm.
It didn’t make sense to me. His apology in the rain, the one I’d always remembered, that I could understand. The regret for shooting me, for being unable to undo what he’d done, had always been clear. But this apology seemed unfounded. I relived my confusion at it then, and it still didn’t make sense. He was trying to protect me. And yet he nearly wept as he begged for my forgiveness.
He turned to Elliot. “I’m so sorry.”
Elliot nodded quickly, handing Jared the orb. “Take this. Keep it safe.” He turned to me. “You’ll use it to beat them. You have what you need.”
“What do I do?” Jared asked, his voice desperate.
“Get this to a safe place and stay with it. I’ll protect Rachel.”
Jared started to protest, but Elliot cut him off, “You have to do this. It’s the only way to keep everybody safe. Take it, Jared. Keep it safe.”
“Keep her safe.” He took the orb and said to me, again, “I’m sorry”. He walked backwards, gazing at me with that same expression, and then turned and ran.
The warehouse was silent as Tyler, Sarah and Dee focused on helping unearth the memories. My mind resisted. I didn’t want to remember that part. I’d shut it out. It was buried so deep, I could feel myself pushing them out. I closed my eyes, willing my mind to stop fighting them and, instead, help them move past the wall I’d built to protect myself from the pain of the memory.
Rapid footsteps echoed over the patter of raindrops. Someone else approached.
“Jared?” I called out.
Elliot touched my arm. “It’s not him.” His expression clouded with sorrow. “You’re stronger than you think.”
There was a flash of light, and the person disappeared. Another flash, and Elliot vanished with him. What just happened?
I hadn’t realized it at that time, but I knew where they’d gone. The other earth. I didn’t see the tear—just the light left as he moved from one dimension to the other. Paralyzed by fear, I shivered in the rain, waiting.
The sky lit up again, and then a strong arm encircled my neck, chocking me, cutting off my air completely. The edges of vision in my periphery blackened and closed in.
From far behind me, Jared cried my name, his footsteps pounding the earth, nearing. The next thing I knew, three things happened at once; my attacker swung me around as a loud noise rang out, and bright light temporarily blinded me. The pressure on my throat was gone, and the bullet from Jared’s gun tore through my body. I looked into his startled eyes. He hadn’t meant to shoot me. He’d meant to shoot the person choking me. He’d known my attacker and what he was going to do.
I took my fingers from the orb. “Jared was trying to protect me,” I said, looking first at Tyler. “Whatever else might be true about him, he was trying to protect me.”
Tyler nodded. “But from who?”
It was the question on everyone’s mind. They cared much less about Jared’s vindication than I did. For them, this was not about finding out why Jared had done what he had done, but about finding out why we had this orb, and who else might want to take it from us. Who was Jared hiding it from?
“So, what do we do with it now?” Dee finally asked. We looked at the orb, cradled now on Sarah’s palm.
“I guess I’ll take it home,” I said.
“You? You have the least amount of privacy!” Sarah clutched it closer to her.
“Especially since you’ve been gone for a while. They’ll be suspicious.”
“I’ll keep it safe,” I said, holding out my hand for it. “Elliot wanted me to have it.”
For some reason, she didn’t argue, just handed it to me with a heavy sigh. “Don’t screw up, then.”
“I’ll try not to.” Not terribly reassuring, I knew, but the best I could do. “For now, though, let’s find Jonathan before we do anything else.” Even as I spoke, I knew what we had to do after that. Once we came together again, we would go back in. We had to. I felt sick thinking about it, but why would Elliot give us this power and trust us with these abilities if we weren’t the ones? We were stronger than we thought. We had to be.
“In the meantime,” I said as I returned the orb to the pack,, “get those weapons Elliot gave you.” I held out my hands to them once more and they each touched me. Words were becoming redundant. I showed them the first fight, the one where Tyler and I entered the other dimension together. He used his weapon, and the creatures hardly put up any resistance. Then I showed them the fight when we’d gone in together, no weapons, entirely unprepared. We held our own, but our blows had much less effect. The weapons made a difference. They intensified our abilities.
“They make us stronger.”
“So we gather our weapons, find Jonathan, and what—declare war? The five of us?” Dee frowned.
“Maybe. I don’t want to go back there. I don’t want us to …” I choked on the word, then forced it out, “die. But I know we’re looking for a building in a field. Away from the others. That’s a start. And we need to move. What if those things get in?” I pictured Evelyn now, looking down at my tiny sister. As much as I hated Evelyn’s eagerness to replace me, she felt that way because she wanted her baby to live, in this world, loved and adored. And I’d promised Hope I would defend her and never abandon her. Could I really imagine not fighting to protect her?
“Not just her,” Tyler said quietly. “Everyone.”
“Tomorrow, then,” I said. I was sick about the task ahead but sicker about waiting. We didn’t know how close they were to completion, but we sensed it coming. It might be finished any moment. We couldn’t afford to go on planning, training, waiting. We needed to get the job done: to find the bridge and destroy it.
I also had my parents to worry about. There was no way I could leave that unfinished, especially since we all knew failure was a definite possibility. “Let’s meet at school. I’m pretty sure I’m not going to be able to go anywhere else. We can figure out the details from there. And bring your weapons.”
“We’ll just have to make sure Jonathan finds an excuse.”
There was nothing to disagree about. Time was running out. We could feel it. Tomorrow morning, we’d try again. We’d have the orb, we’d have the weapons, and we’d have each other.
“Tomorrow,” Tyler said, letting go of my arm. I shrugged off Sarah’s coat, removing my weapon from its pocket bef
ore I handed it back to her.
“That’s if my parents haven’t killed me first.” I slid the cylinder next to the orb in Jared’s backpack.
Chapter Fifteen
It was as bad as I’d imagined it would be. In fact, it was worse.
Tyler drove me home, although I made him drop me off at the end of my street. He didn’t want to; he knew I’d be in trouble and that Mikey would be there. Given his own experience with his father, I understood why he was protective. He only let me go when I showed him Mikey’s temper was in the form of words and intimidation. I knew what he was thinking. It always starts that way. He was probably right, that it was only a matter of time until Mikey escalated; he seemed like that kind of man, to me at least. But somehow, given my new physical condition, I didn’t think I’d let it happen.
Tyler worried anyway. I didn’t know how to explain that I didn’t want him to take me to my door because I didn’t want my parents to connect him with what I’d put them through the last few days. I wanted him to be allowed to come around again. If we survived.
I stood in front of my house, staring at the closed door. The porch lights were on, and lights were on in the upstairs window, despite the fact that it was after eleven. I wondered if I should ring. I pictured my parents waiting. Would a doorbell at this time of night signify bad news?
I eased open the front door and slipped inside. I hadn’t decided what to tell them about where I’d been. I tried to latch the door quietly, but the faint click brought a rush of footsteps down the stairs. My mom didn’t stop at the foot of the stairs as she met my eyes. She rushed forward and threw her arms around me, crushed me to her body, sobbing. My eyes welled up at her sudden embrace. She’d thought I was dead. I hoped she wouldn’t have to lose me twice.
Heavy footsteps sounded on the stairs, and my mom stiffened in sudden fear. Mikey was coming. And he would be upset. She pulled away and turned to face him, deliberately placing herself between us.
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