Dark Before Dawn

by Stacy Juba

  "Oh, my God. How could he be hit by a train?" Jamie’s angular face pinched in horror.

  Shuddering, Candace hunched forward in her chair.

  "This is awful," murmured Dawn's mother. "That poor boy. His poor family. How did it happen?"

  "He and his friends were walking in the center of town. Tim ran across the street, right into the path of an oncoming train." Jeff stood behind Dawn's mother and touched her shoulder. She reached up and covered his hand with her own.

  Ken raked a hand through his hair. Emotions flickered across his face, first grief, then bewilderment.

  "It doesn't make sense," he said. "Why would he do something so stupid?"

  Without finishing dinner, Jeff left for the office to change the Gazette's front page layout. Everyone else stopped eating also, their appetites gone. A store-bought chocolate cake remained boxed on the kitchen counter. While her mother cleared the table and loaded the dishwasher, Dawn followed her friends out to the living room.

  She pushed apart the slitted blinds on the sliding glass door. Waves lurched toward the sand, dark shapeless shadows baring white fangs.

  She'd had a bad feeling all weekend, ever since she heard the train whistle shrill Friday night. Why had her fears been hazy when they had been clear for Scott? Not once had Tim entered her mind. True, her abilities weren’t foolproof, but they should be getting stronger.

  Dawn hunkered beside her friends on the living room couch. She drew the lighthouse afghan around herself, but she couldn't stop trembling from the coldness that perforated her skin. "I can't believe none of us sensed this. I should have known when I saw him in school."

  Candace blew her nose on an embroidered handkerchief, her eyes bloodshot and puffy. "I feel like I’m gonna hurl."

  "I'm so sorry," Jamie said, slipping an arm around her shoulders. "You liked him so much."

  "My sister must be in shock." Surprisingly, Candace seemed genuinely sorry.

  "It's strange," Dawn mused. "Two people in the same school, both in accidents. On top of that, they were best friends."

  Candace’s grief contorted into a sour little glower. "It should've been someone like Renee. Why Tim?"

  "What do you mean?" Dawn asked.

  "If someone had to die, it should have been Renee. No one would miss her."

  Her creepy tone sent another ripple of chills through Dawn’s body. Dawn licked her lips, torn between ignoring Candace’s callous words and responding. "I’m sure her family and friends would miss her," she finally ventured. "No one deserves to have their future cut short, even Renee."

  "That’s your opinion. Not mine. I’ve gotta go." Candace rose.

  Jamie popped up and followed her to the coat closet. "Can you give me a ride?"

  "Fine, come on." Candace yanked on her coat and opened the front door. "See you," she told Dawn almost as an afterthought.

  "Bye, thank you," Jamie said, hurrying to keep pace.

  Dawn closed the door behind them, relieved her friends weren’t staying. She needed time alone, to mull things over, and Candace’s mixed reaction confused her. Tim, dead. It seemed impossible to comprehend.

  Ken stalked into the living room, as if he'd been waiting for Candace and Jamie to leave. "I don’t buy that you go to the mall and the movies every day. I go to those places too, and you’re never there."

  "It’s not my problem if you don’t see me." Dawn edged past him to the staircase and cupped the railing, hoping he’d take the hint.

  "Are you sure you haven’t been back to that fortuneteller?"

  Dawn froze and slowly faced him. "I told you, that was a one-time thing. If you must know, we go over Jamie’s house."

  "Did you know Renee is going around calling you guys the Three Witches?"

  "That’s dumb."

  "Oh really? You pegged the game exactly right." Ken pointed to the TV screen. The graphics showed the score was 38-17, Patriots, one minute left in the game.

  "So you’ll win your bet. That’s good news, isn’t it?" Dawn was losing track of the conversation, fatigue deadening every cell of her body. Gauziness swamped her head as if it were stuffed with cotton balls. She wanted to climb into bed and sleep. To forget Tim and Scott ever existed so this sadness would leave her alone.

  "I wouldn’t have predicted that score, but I’ll tell you this," Ken said, crossing his arms. "I’ve got a bad feeling about Candace and Jamie. A real bad feeling. Stay away from them, Dawn, or they’ll get you into trouble."

  Chapter Thirteen

  Dawn closed the front door to Serina’s cottage and joined Candace on the porch. Crisp golden and red leaves rolled along the ground in the wind. Behind the cottage, thundered the quick sharp blows of the ocean.

  "What are you doing out here all by yourself?" Dawn asked.

  Candace glanced up from a white wicker chair, her fingers curled around the sides. "Thinking about how I hate the jerks at school. Isn't it dumb how when someone dies, everyone was suddenly their best friend? They act like they're so important. They're so shallow."

  Dawn picked up a brochure on the wicker table and read the front panel upside down. Serina, Intuitive Consultant. No last name. Serina had never shared it at their sessions.

  "How come you gave Ken a hard time last night? I know he was being nosy, but you were deliberately egging him on." Dawn hadn’t planned to ask the question, it had just fallen out of her mouth, but she set down the brochure and waited for her friend’s answer.

  "He's one of them."

  "One of who?"

  "The in-crowd." Candace spat out the words like a clump of chewing tobacco.

  "What do you mean? He barely talked to Tim and Scott, and he's never been invited to Renee's parties. Believe me, he wishes she’d give him the time of day."

  "He's on the hockey team. Maybe he's in a different group, but they're all the same. Snobs."

  Dawn pulled her sweater tighter in the brisk breeze. "He’s not like that. Really."

  Candace snorted. "Yeah, right."

  Jamie beckoned them inside for hot chocolate and cookies, and Dawn gave up her defense of Ken. Candace would believe what she wanted to believe.

  Dawn took her usual spot on the loveseat and accepted a cup of cocoa from Jamie. Serina swept back her white blonde hair, which Dawn imagined would be the color of an angel’s hair. Lapis Lazuli star earrings glinted like blue beacons, contrasting against Serina's black sweater and slacks.

  "You look troubled, Dawn," she said, sitting at her table. "I sense you’re upset about Tim Travers."

  Dawn hesitated, then plowed ahead. "Why didn't any of us know he was going to die? Wouldn't the crystals make me more in tune? I didn't even need them with Scott."

  "You’re still learning. Your abilities have a long way to go before they’ll be fully developed. Even I can’t know everything. It’s not realistic, or healthy, to expect that of yourself."

  Dawn stirred a ball of whipped cream around her cocoa, melting it into a flat cloud. True, being psychic wasn’t the same as being superhuman, but the crystals still bothered her. "I read that you can program a crystal to give off a certain vibration. Is that true?"

  Serina tipped her head backwards, her lower lip protruding. "Where did you read that?"

  "On the Internet."

  "If you want to read up on the subject, I'll lend you the proper books. Most of what's on the Internet and in books is nonsense. If you gather information from a bunch of unreliable sources, everything I'm working to teach you will be destroyed."

  Dawn cringed at her hard tone. "Sorry," she muttered.

  The lesson lasted for another hour. Serina showed them several types of quartz crystals and described the qualities associated with each. Her earlier criticism still stung, but Serina had prepared a thorough, fascinating lesson, and once again, Dawn remembered how much she needed her mentor.

  A text message from Dawn’s mother interrupted the lecture. "Come home now," the screen read.

  Uh, oh, what was that all about? Dawn
hoped dinner was just ready a little early.

  "I’ve got to go," she said. "Is it okay if Candace drives me home?"

  Serina packed up her crystals into an assortment of velvet pouches. "Yes, you may all be dismissed. We’re through here."

  When Dawn entered the house a little while later, her mother popped up from the couch.

  "Where have you been?" she asked.

  Rolling her eyes, Dawn hung up her jacket and headed toward the stairs. She still had that rundown feeling from last night and a tickle irritated her throat as if she were on the verge of a cold. "It's not even five yet."

  "Where were you?" her mother pressed.

  Dawn turned. "Jamie's."

  "Don't lie. You were at a fortuneteller's house. Not for the first time. What’s going on over there, Dawn?"

  "What?" How could she know about Serina? Dawn searched her mother's mind until...

  "Ken? Ken followed me?" Dawn couldn’t believe she hadn’t sensed his presence at Serina’s cottage, but she had been distracted.

  "Let’s go outside." Her mom opened the screen door and exited onto the patio. Dawn grabbed her coat out of the closet. Ken had ratted on her. Wait till she saw him!

  She took her time catching up to her mother, who had crossed the patio and was descending the wooden steps to the beach. Overhead, the setting sun jeweled the darkening sky with streaks of orange and pink. A gust of wind sliced through Dawn’s coat as she stomped down the creaking stairs.

  Her mother sat on the last step and zipped her hooded sweatshirt. "Yes, Ken followed you. He had a feeling you and your friends would be visiting this fortuneteller and wanted to find out whether he was right. He said he’d seen you there once and warned you to stay away from her. Dawn, how could you get involved with this woman?"

  Dawn sank down beside her mother. Gritty sand from the step crusted her jeans. "Look, calm down. You're making a big deal over nothing."

  "I want to know what's going on."

  Sighing, Dawn stared at the seashell fragments and snarls of seaweed choking the water’s edge. White crests sprayed to shore, burying the objects and retreating. Dawn decided to go with honesty. She saw no other way out of this. "You know I sense things that other people don't. Candace has the same ability, and Jamie's trying to develop it. They’ve been working with Serina and invited me to join them."

  Her mother stiffened and Dawn went on, "She’s a gifted psychic, Mom. Her intuitive abilities and her knowledge are amazing. She’s taught me so much about myself."

  "You’ve been taking psychic lessons? Behind my back?"

  Dawn exhaled a long frustrated breath. It was just like her mother to focus on the negative and show no interest in Serina’s gifts. "Why would I tell you about it, when I knew you’d make me stop? You never want to hear about anything psychic. You want me to ignore my abilities, so I had to get help somewhere."

  Hurt darted across her mother’s face, but her jaw had a rigid set. "You’re never to see that woman again. No more going out with Jamie and Candace, either."

  Dawn jumped up, balling her hands into fists at her side. She wouldn’t have had to sneak around if her mother had supported her over the years. Dawn wouldn’t have even needed Serina. "I don’t believe this. I can’t count on you, but you have the nerve to pull me away from the only people willing to help me?"

  "You don’t understand."

  Dawn paced a few feet along the private stretch of beach. "You're not telling me what to do, Mom, not on this. Since I was a little kid, you've acted like there was something wrong with me. My abilities are part of who I am and you never wanted to deal with it. You can’t just get involved now."

  Her mother stood and clasped the wooden railing. "Are you paying this woman?"

  "Serina doesn't want our money."

  "What does she get out of it?"

  "She wants to teach us. She thinks we’re special."

  Her mother cocked her head, shoulder-length dark hair ruffling in the breeze. "Why would Serina give up all that time? I understand why you were attracted to her, Dawn, I really do, but I don't like this."

  "You don't even know her."

  "Exactly. Can you blame me for being concerned?"

  "Serina’s supporting my gift, not trying to hide it like it doesn’t exist."

  "For God’s sake, Dawn, being psychic is dangerous. I know that better than anyone!"

  "Dangerous? What do you mean?"

  "Other people could find out and want to use your talent for their own purposes," her mother said quickly. Too quickly. "I wanted you to have a normal life."

  "Mom, please. You know something. I have a right to know what it is."

  Her mother sucked in her breath and her face tightened. Dawn closed her eyes, connecting with her mother’s thoughts. All she got was a strong pulsing sense of her father. Her eyelids fluttered open. "Daddy? What does Daddy have to do with this?"

  Her mother slumped back onto the stairs. She cupped her chin in her hands, tugged on her earlobes and squinted up at Dawn as dusk veiled the sky. Her mouth hooked into an ironic humorless smile. "Please don’t do that. Your father used to read my mind and it drove me crazy."

  "What?" Her knees spongy, Dawn teetered and lowered herself back onto the step. "That’s impossible. Daddy wasn’t psychic."

  Her mother reached over, enclosing Dawn’s hand with fingers icier than the surf. "You were young, but stop and think for a minute. Do you remember when Daddy took you out of school and brought you to the zoo?"

  "Yeah, that’s when I got Buddy."

  "Your class was going on a field trip and there was a bus accident. No one was seriously hurt, but some kids went to the hospital. Do you remember?"

  "Now that you reminded me." Dawn thought back to that long ago time. She’d heard her parents arguing in the kitchen that morning. Then Dad came upstairs and told her she had the day off from school.

  "Wait a minute!" Dawn ripped her hand away from her mother. "Dad knew, didn't he? He was afraid the accident might be worse. If I’d been on the bus, maybe I would have been the one kid seriously injured – or killed. I don’t believe this, he read minds and had the same premonitions that I do, and you never told me!"

  "I’m sorry, Dawn. Maybe I made a mistake, but I only wanted what’s best for you. I downplayed your abilities to protect you. I had reasons, good reasons."

  Dawn stumbled to her feet. She looked up at the house and caught Ken peeking out the living room window. He ducked out of sight. All this betrayal. Ken, her mother, her father, they’d all betrayed her. She’d been seven when her dad died. Old enough to know him, to have a bond with him. They hadn’t been as close as she thought, if her father kept this secret.

  Her father was a stranger.

  Dawn lashed out at the only parent alive to hear her rant. "All these years, you’ve made me feel like there was something wrong with me. You tried to turn me into someone else. And the whole time, you knew my abilities came from Daddy."

  "Dawn–"

  "How could you let me feel like an ugly duckling when you knew I was just like Daddy? Do you have any idea how much it would have helped me to know that I shared something with him?"

  "When you were a little girl, I thought ... I hoped that if I discouraged it, maybe you could push it away. Your father believed he was invincible and trusted his visions too much. I was afraid, Dawn."

  Her mother rose and took a tentative step toward Dawn. Fear emanated from her, contagious fear that spread to Dawn in invisible tendrils.

  "There's something I've kept from you about the car accident," her mother said. "I never wanted you to know, because I thought it would frighten you. But maybe that's what you need. To realize how dangerous these premonitions can be."

  "That’s the second time you called them dangerous," Dawn said. "Why?"

  "Your father's secretary told me later that all of a sudden he had just jumped up and flung on his jacket. She asked him what was wrong, and he kept repeating that he had to get home, tha
t something had happened and his wife and daughter were sobbing in the bedroom. She assumed he'd just gotten off the phone with me."

  "I don't get it." Dawn shook her head, trying to understand, knowing it was important to understand, but everything was a muddle. Serina had been right. There had been dishonesty and secrets about her father.

  "He saw the future, Dawn. Yes, we were sobbing in the bedroom, but not until later that night, when we found out he was dead. If he hadn't acted on that vision, and rushed home to be with us, he wouldn't have died."

  Her mother released a shaky breath. "It killed him, Dawn. His abilities killed him. I don't want yours to do the same to you."

  Chapter Fourteen

  "I’ve got to do my homework." Dawn backed away from her mother’s truths, her stomach rocking like a sailboat trapped in a hurricane. She pivoted and hurried up the wooden steps into the living room.

  Ken popped up from the couch where he was watching television. "You okay?" he asked, a cautious note in his voice. "I saw you fighting with your mom."

  Yeah, because he’d been spying, just as he’d spied on her with Serina. Torrents of fury increased Dawn’s heart rate, fury that psychic abilities killed her father, fury that her mother lied for years, fury that Ken’s interference destroyed the new life she’d worked so hard to attain.

  Fury that she was doomed to a lifetime of fearing her premonitions and having no power to stop them.

  Dawn hurled a lighthouse pillow at the glass door. Ken’s eyes moved from the pillow to Dawn, blinking rapidly.

  "You jerk!" she shouted. "Who do you think you are, following me and tattling to my mother? My life is none of your business."

  Ken rose, his expression going from hangdog to bulldog. "I tried talking to you the first time you went to that fortuneteller and you didn’t listen. For all I knew, you were being brainwashed or drugged. Sue me for caring."

  "You were wrong. There's nothing criminal about Serina. Being psychic doesn't make her a bad person." Dawn glared at her trail of sand tracks on the carpet. For once, someone else could clean up her mess.

  "Yeah, well, I think she’s on a power trip. You, Candace and Jamie act like you’re in a cult."