“I assure you, all we want to do is help,” states the ever stoic doctor.
I nod, assured for now that I’m safe enough with these two while I’m sifting through Julia’s memories. I stand in front of her, pondering everything that Evans said. It all makes sense, but I can’t help but wonder how in the world I’m going to get it done. Worse yet, I’ll experience firsthand the horrors of the crash. But, the more I think about it, the more I’m happy to do something to help her. Taking that hell from her may be the only shot she has at a normal life, or at least, what’s left of normal for her.
Finally, ready, I take a deep breath. I will my mind to stop thinking and questioning as I do my best to forget about the others in the room with me. Especially the man who knows so much about a curse that didn’t exist before me. After going into Dejana and Logan’s memories, I feel fairly confident that I can become Julia. That’s not what I’m worried about. What has me terrified is the crash. As strong as my mind has become these past few months after dying, I’m not entirely confident my mind can handle that.
“I know it won’t be real, but will my mind be able to handle going through that while I’m in there?” I ask Evans.
“You can do anything, Aimee. You just have to remind yourself that it isn’t your memory. Once the crash is done, you have to remove yourself from Julia by touching her again within the memory.”
I hear shuffling of feet behind me as Brett moves closer to stand with me by Julia’s bed. He must sense my hesitation. “You can do this. Just breathe and focus. I won’t let anything happen to you.”
Hearing the same words Logan said to me long ago in Dejana’s room should have made me feel better, but hearing them only make me miss Logan more. The image of his face suddenly pops into my head; his smile is sexy and he exudes light. It’s a light I so desperately need, or else I will drown in all this darkness. Seeing his face has strengthened my desire to eliminate whatever memories I can to get him back. Resolved, I move as close as possible to Julia and place my hand just above her forehead, preparing to touch my skin to hers. There’s just one more thing I have to say before the darkness takes me. I turn to Dr. Evans and Brett and I’m instantly and perversely amused by the worried looks that cover both their faces. They seriously have no idea what’s coming. I turn back to Julia to hide my smile.
“Hey guys?” I ask them without turning.
“Yes?” respond Dr. Evans and Brett simultaneously.
“Which one of you is going to catch me?” I ask as I place my bare hand upon Julia’s cool forehead and the familiar darkness once again envelopes me.
Chapter Sixteen
~ 911~
Sitting in a silver convertible Mercedes, I feel the wind through my hair and the sun on my face. Justin Timberlake is blaring through the radio while I sit in the back seat beside a guy that, come to think of it, looks an awful lot like JT, with his short blonde hair and blue eyes. His white teeth practically shine as he smiles out into the great beyond. The sun gleams back at me from the reflection in his sunglasses, but it doesn’t hurt my eyes. The ugly pink shirt he’s wearing is a different story, however.
Giggling from the front seat draws my attention away from the JT wannabe. Julia’s blonde hair billows out behind her as the car speeds away on the back roads. Her olive skinned friend sits in the passenger seat, decked out in a brown tank top and short white shorts. They apparently are sharing a funny story, but the wind is roaring in my ears, making it impossible to overhear what they’re saying to each other.
I look out past Julia and see that she’s driving down a two-lane highway filled with curves. Every once in a while, we pass a few stores, but other than that, the red clay is all that adorns the roadsides. We could be on any typical back road of Georgia. I’m afraid I don’t have much time, so I lean forward to touch Julia, to make my way into this version of her memory, but I’m stopped dead in my tracks when she turns her head and stares right at me.
“Hi, Aimee,” she says nonchalantly. “He told me you might visit. I’m supposed to show you exactly what happened to me. If you don’t touch me soon, it’ll be too late.”
Rendered immobile by shock, my hand freezes midway between us. I have no idea how she knows my name, or even how she knows I’m here. I’ve never met her before and I would have thought her coma would have rendered her unable to interact. This just shows how little I know of anything that has to do with my curse. I swallow hard. Though time is short, there’s something I have to know before I touch her.
“Who told you I was coming, Julia?”
“The great seer of course. But you can call him David.”
Unexpectedly, she reaches out from the front seat and grabs my frozen, outstretched hand. Immediately, I’m pulled into her consciousness; I can see what she sees, feel what she feels, just like in the echoes of memories I’ve experienced before. I’m behind the wheel of the Mercedes, chatting away with my best friend Miriam. The only worry I have is how my hair will look when we arrive at the Varsity later tonight. My makeup will be perfect of course, but the wind is never good for my hair, which took me hours to perfect this morning. There’s a party tonight at Cody’s house after dinner and everyone will be there. It’s important that I look good for Cody’s football friends. I glide into the next curve, careful not to go too fast. Miriam asks me a question about my homecoming dress, and I eagerly explain to her how beautiful the deep red color is, but I’ll have to be careful between now and then, or else I’ll be forced to lose at least three pounds before I put it on for the dance. Nothing can break my good mood today.
From its perch on the dashboard, my cell phone buzzes. I don’t normally answer it while I’m driving, but it could be something important about the party tonight, so I decide to glance at it. I take the cell phone out of the car phone holder I have attached to the dashboard and look at the lit up screen. It’s from some unknown number so I start to put my phone back into its cradle when I read the three letters lit up on the screen like a Christmas tree: NOW.
Something inside my brain switches, and I immediately feel the need to turn my car to the right. Up ahead, there’s a curve, but I hold onto the wheel tightly with both hands so it won’t move. As I accelerate into the curve, I can hear Miriam and Cody yelling at me, but I don’t understand the words. I have one thought, one goal in mind, and I need to stay the course.
Beside me, Miriam tries to take the wheel, but it’s no use, my hands are cemented to it because that’s how he needs it to be. Nothing can convince me to alter my course; fate can’t be changed.
As soon as the car hits the railing that separates the road from the cliff, I feel the car lurch. But that’s nothing compared to the feeling of freedom as the car takes flight and glides like a bird with spread wings, riding the wind into forever as the car heads straight down a fifty-foot cliff.
Time stops. The roar of the engine is silent; even the wind dies down to help me savor this one moment of time.
My goal is achieved.
I’m unusually calm as I unbuckle my seatbelt and push up as hard as I can to make my way completely out of the car. I want to fly some more, feel the wind beneath me as it pushes me higher and higher towards Heaven. I’m fully released now from the metal bird, so I close my eyes, fan out my arms, and lift my face towards the sun in anticipation of what’s to come. After savoring the moment a bit longer, I look down and wave to Miriam and Cody still locked into the car by their seat belts. I silently wish them a happy journey as I fly free above them. I don’t notice the fearful looks upon their faces; I’m too busy flying.
As I float suspended in the air, I watch as the car reaches the bottom of the valley, hits the ground with a loud thud, and bursts into flames. My hands cover my face so I’m not hit by the flying car parts or scorched by the flames. The ground gets closer and closer. The heat from the car is almost unbearable as I near it. The flames resemble more of hell than of heaven.
The buzz I feel from flying is slowly being replaced by pa
in and fear. As I near the crashed car, crumpled and melting now at the bottom of the cliff, I see Miriam in the front seat, but she looks so strange. She’s slumped over at an odd angle, like half of her is under the car reaching for something. The top half of her is black, scorched from the fire that erupted the minute the car hit earth. I look for Cody, but I become panicked when I can’t find him. I search and search, but I can’t see his beautiful blue eyes anywhere.
My heart beats faster; sweat’s pouring down my face from the fire that is getting closer and closer. I’m frantic now, searching for him; my eyes dart back and forth in a vain attempt to find anything that resembles my sweet Cody. Finally, the sun catches something pink. I look to the left of the burning car and see his pink shirt billowing out in the wind like a flag. But that’s all there is, his pink shirt attached to a torso. His beautiful eyes aren’t there anymore—they're about five feet to the right of where his head landed.
Tears flow down my face, but I don’t feel them. All I feel is numb. The ground gets nearer, the sweet oblivion that death offers is comforting now. I have no idea how I came to be here or what caused any of this. My mind is a muddy mess of confusion, but it doesn’t matter. Nothing matters now that the two people I love most in this world are dead. I close my eyes, not wanting to see the instrument of my destruction. Time moves even slower, just when I need it to speed up.
Yet, as I wait for death, something else pulls at me. Some purpose to all of this. There’s something I’ve been sent here to do, but I have no idea how to get it done before I hit the ground.
A sudden pain erupts in my chest. It’s like something inside of me is trying to eat its way out. I claw at my chest with my nails, trying to help it along, anything to stop the excruciating pain. I look down and see the skin on my chest rise and fall as the image of a hand tries to emerge. Finally, the hand breaks through my chest like a small explosion. It’s quickly followed by a head, shoulders, and a body. Within milliseconds, the long body of Julia has crawled out of my chest and is now floating in front of me. As we look at each other falling together as one, I note that her face and body are flawless, but her fear is contagious. Her mouth is moving, but I can’t hear anything over the roar of the fire. All I can do is read her lips as they say the same phrase repeatedly as we draw nearer to the unforgivingly hard ground: “He’s coming for you.”
The bottom of the cliff is so close now I can make out the granules of the sand that surround the bushes thriving there. I’m painfully aware that our time is almost up. I reach out my hand as far as I can towards Julia, desperate to reach her in time. Julia extends her hand out towards me as well, like she knows instinctively what I need to do, but we aren’t going to make it. I was too late. She’s going to hit the ground before I’m able to touch her and take this memory back with me.
Julia turns to look at the ground and then back at me. Tears fill her eyes. She realizes what’s coming, knows there’s nothing she can do to change it. She flings herself up and grabs my hand just inches before she makes contact with the valley floor. The burning pain that accompanies her touch is excruciating as it spreads throughout my body. She’s so close now I can hear her whisper, “I’m so sorry” before she hits the ground hard and the world before me explodes into a thousand pieces of white light. The force of it throws me back from Julia and the impending ground, forcing me painfully back into the real world.
Chapter Seventeen
~ Revelations ~
“Julia!” I scream as I open my eyes, fully prepared to see a girl’s mangled and broken body before me. But all I see is a white tiled ceiling with moldy water spots and Brett’s concerned face hovering above me, his strong arms holding me still.
“Calm down,” he says in a soft voice. “You’re safe now. I won’t let anything hurt you.”
* * * *
I’m almost lulled to sleep by the sound of the wind coming through the open window of Brett’s truck. The night is cool and the city quiet. It’s ironic since it’s the complete opposite of what’s going on in my mind right now. Not to mention the tornados currently wreaking havoc in the minds of the people I love.
Every time I doze off, memories of free falling to an exploding car jolt me awake. The nightmares plague me even when I’m awake. I shiver, more from the bleakness of the situation than the cold. In one quick motion, Brett pulls a blanket from the back seat and covers me with it. I’m touched by his thoughtfulness, but immediately feel guilty at allowing such comforts when Logan is still lost within himself, waiting for me to save him. Now that I have a real shot at it, I can barely move. My legs and arms feel like Jello, and my head feels like it was hit by a truck. I guess experiencing a memory within a person takes more energy out of you than just revisiting the echo. Regardless, I won’t be of much help to anyone if I don’t rest first. I guess I did need someone to drive me home after all.
It isn’t long before Brett’s pulling his truck into my driveway. He throws it into park so he can come around the car and quickly help me out. Normally, I wouldn’t even entertain the thought of anyone touching me. I’ve never felt this drained before and don’t think I could make it into the house by myself anyway.
I lean my head back against the headrest, trying to gather enough energy to walk inside the house. The car door opens and suddenly Brett is in front of me, his face a mask of concern. I’m too tired to be alarmed when he scoops me up in his arms to carry me inside. My body’s covered as usual, but my face is bare so I turn it away from him, resisting the urge to rest my head in the crook of his neck before I fall into oblivion.
He gently carries me inside the front door and races up the stairs to my room. I’m too tired to care that he isn’t supposed to be in here. I can’t keep my eyes open as he slams open my bedroom door and quickly enters, placing me gently on top of my bedspread. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I know that I should feel threatened by being alone with a guy I barely know in my bedroom, but something about him being here feels comfortable, safe even. Despite the intense exhaustion that threatens to overtake me, I want to thank Brett. He was thrown into this after Dejana fell into the coma, and to his credit, he hasn’t yet fled as I had expected him to.
I turn my head to the side and see Brett is sitting on the bed beside me. He’s so close I can smell his aftershave mixed with sweat. Normally that combination doesn’t appeal to me, but on him, it's borderline sexy. He’s a bit out of breath from carrying me upstairs and his hair, a bit longer in the front, partly covers one of his eyes as he stares at me. I look up from his black shirt and when our eyes meet, I’m startled. I expected concern, but what I see in the depths of those blue eyes is more desperate and sad. He lifts his hand and gently moves my hair off my face. Our eyes lock; I can’t move even if I wanted to. Anticipation like I’ve never experienced before consumes me. I want to feel him touch me, want to feel alive after experiencing so much death in Julia’s memory.
I inhale his sweet scent and close my eyes as his hand approaches my face. For some reason I can’t fathom, the desire for him to touch me is overwhelming. All I can think is that I must need him to help me feel something, anything that reminds me I’m alive. I feel his fingers as they lightly caress the skin on my forehead; feel my hair tickle me as he moves it to the side. His fingers are soft as they moves across my skin, leaving behind little tingling waves of pleasure wherever he touches. My entire body tenses, waiting for the onslaught of his memories, but I absorb nothing. Either I’m too tired, or I’m dreaming. Take your pick.
“So beautiful,” Brett whispers so quietly that the only proof he said anything at all was the movement of his lips.
“Hardly,” I respond out of breath myself from his touch. The world around me is becoming more and more unfocused. I can’t hold out much longer before blessed oblivion takes, and hopefully, recharges me. Still, there’s something I have to say to Brett. I open my eyes and find him staring right back at me. The longing I see hiding within the depths of his blue eyes moves me.
> “You’re safe now, Brett. I won’t let anything hurt you,” I declare, repeating the same words he said to me in the hospital, just a short bit ago.
Brett smiles, his persona once again exuding sexiness. The more time I spend with him, the more I see why the other girls fall all over him.
“I know, dark princess. Now sleep. I meant it when I said I wouldn’t let anything hurt you.”
I smile as I close my eyes and curl up deeper into my mattress. I feel safe as I let the blessed exhaustion take over. Yet, before I fall into oblivion, I have a startling revelation: I actually believe him.
Chapter Eighteen
~ Gateway To Hell ~
The glass hits the wall with an earth shattering crash as it breaks into a million pieces. Evidence of David’s rage is littered all around him in the shape of broken plates, glasses, picture frames, and bottles. The shattered pieces mirror his broken mind. He can’t handle much more. The memories he’s absorbed are taunting him, disintegrating his mind slowly to prolong his suffering. His fury at Aimee only serves to further fragment his being. There’s little time left now to complete his plan for ascension. Aimee’s recent success with Julia was by design. Nothing has happened that David hadn’t already preordained and set up like pieces on a chessboard. The only difference is, Aimee doesn’t realize she’s playing his game.
He left her clues in every memory he inserted into her friends’ minds, to point to where he needs her to be. But there’s one problem: it’s taking her too long to arrive at the end. Apparently, she’s a slow learner, and his mind simply doesn’t have that kind of time left.
Unhinged Page 12