I groan, and push myself up into a sitting position. “Do you want to tell me why you look like you’ve been working as a chimney sweep?”
Her face falls. “Come on Liv, don’t tell me you don’t remember. You do, don’t you?”
“Sort of, um” I shoot a wary glance at the nurse, then lower my voice and lean in closer to Mer. “Ghosts, Dillon attacks, Lukas fights him off, Dillon hurts Lukas, Dillon holds Adam hostage. I get the knife and give it to Fiona, Fiona threatens Dillon with it, parents come. Dillon drags me to the library, Dillon and Lukas break the glass. Dillon breaks some bookshelves, then there’s a fire, my mom comes to rescue me, and I wake up here. Did I leave anything out?”
Mer shakes her head, and I lean even closer to her. “But I did! When I got the knife, I went through all those peoples legs! Literally, they didn’t move an inch. I went through their legs, and saw bone and muscle and blood. Then, outside the library I had to get away from Dillon, and I was standing in front of the library doors. The doors were unlocked, but I was in no position to open them, so I decided to jump through like you see in the movies. But the glass didn’t shatter. I went straight through something, again. Then, after I hit Dillon with The Encyclopedia of Trees, he caused a miniature earthquake that caused all the books to fall off their shelves; the fire didn’t just start, he caused that too. He could shoot fireballs from his hands. Then when I was trapped under the books, and my mom came, I think she was levitating the books.” I take a deep breath.
Mer stares at me for a second then says “You hit Dillon with The Encyclopedia of Trees?”
I glare at her. “Come on Mer, focus! You believe in ghosts, so why is this so hard to believe?”
“Liv, I believe you. It definitely makes sense for Dillon, but if this is true why doesn’t Lukas have powers?”
I remember the second set of memories, and concentrate on them, even when they try to slip away. They flash before my eyes like a slideshow on fast-forward, stopping on a image I’ve never seen before. Lukas and I, in front of the spiral staircase, after we left the discussion in the family room. He put his hands on my temples, and after that all these memories were gone….mostly.
“He does, Mer!” She raises an eyebrow, and I hurry on, explaining everything, when something else hits me.
“The first day I moved here, in the cemetery when I was leaving, Lukas poked my forehead and then said ‘now we’ll know for sure!’”
“After that you started to see all this crazy stuff?” She gasps. “Do you think Lukas awakened your powers!? If that’s true though, then why erase your memory?”
I shrug. “Do you want to ask him?”
Her eyes widen. “Omg, you’re going to ask him about it!?”
“More like demand answers, but yeah.”
“Maybe you should ask your mom first, after all, she could levitate the books….. supposedly.”
I choose to ignore that comment, and stand up. I study my arms and legs. “I don’t have any burns do I?”
“A few first degree, and you inhaled a lot of smoke but otherwise you and everyone else are relatively fine.”
I raise my eyebrows at her. “So…...do you have my clothes, or were they too burned to wear? I’m checking myself out of here.”
The nurse spins around and glares at me. “Your burns may not be bad, but you aren’t leaving without my permission. Your principal specifically said to keep you here until parents can check you out.” Mer laughs dismissively at her, and hands me a plastic bag with my clothes in it. I ignore the nurse and go into the bathroom.
Ugh. I look awful. Soot smears my face, and my curly blonde hair looks like I tried to dye it black, with powder. My burns don’t look nearly as bad as the nurse made them out to be. There is one on my forehead, above my right eye, one on the bridge of my nose between my eyes, and one on my left cheekbone. They are an angry red that’s already fading, instead of looking like I’m a burn victim I look like I’ve been running around outside for too long. “Well....my mom did come into the library right when the fire started. I guess she pulled me out of that book pile before I could get too damaged.” I quickly change into my tattered, scorched jeans and Beatles T-shirt, then leave the bathroom.
When I get out I find Mer arguing with the nurse. “You can’t just keep her here! She’s perfectly fine!”
“First of all, you are not in charge here, I am! And, as if that’s not enough of a reason, she can’t check herself out, because she didn’t check herself in! Whoever checked her in has to check her out!”
“The principal checked the whole fourth period lunch group in, and I doubt he’s going to personally check all of us out. I was with him when he did it, so I’ll check her out! Now give me those forms!” She snatches a clipboard out of the nurses hands and scribbles something on it.
I stroll forward and grin. “Well, now that that’s settled, let’s get out of here.”
The nurse heaves a huge sigh, and storms out the door. “I’m going to check on patients who actually appreciate my help!” She calls behind her.
“Good riddance!” Mer calls cheerfully after her.
I grin, and loop my arm around Mer’s shoulders, pulling her out the door. “Come on, let’s go talk to my mom.”
“What I don’t get is why Adam didn’t go to the gym? The whole library/fire part of the incident could have been avoided!” I complain to Mer, as we wander around the hallways of the hospital, looking for my mom.
“Well, maybe.” Says Mer doubtfully. “We don’t know that Adam going to the gym would have had any affect on the outcome. Maybe his going to the gym would have caused an even bigger problem! After all, Dillon was after you.”
“Maybe.” I acknowledge. “But I still don’t see why he didn’t go to the gym. He broke his ankle for crying out loud!”
“Adam seems like the kind of person who doesn’t back down from a challenge, no matter what. Maybe he also wanted to make sure nobody else got hurt.”
“Just like my daughter seemed to be trying to do.” I wince and look up.
“Hi, Mom.”
“Hi, Mrs. Norfolk.”
“Olivia, Esmeralda.” “
Ouch. Full names.” I mouth to Mer.
“How does she know mine?” Mer mouths back. I shrug.
“Care to tell me why you’re wandering the hallways, when Olivia should be in her hospital room, recovering?”
“Mom, I’m perfectly fine. I’m not just wandering around the halls, Mer discharged me.”
“Yeah.” Mer chimes in. “She tried to do it herself, but the nurse wouldn’t let her.”
My mom raises her eyebrows, and I realize we might not have said the right things if we were aiming to reassure her, so I hurry to diffuse the situation. “We were actually looking for you!”
“Oh, really? Might I ask why?”
“Well……..” I explain the whole situation and all mine and Mer’s theories, then hurriedly ask Mom “So, can you really levitate objects?”
Mom’s expression is shock bordering on panic, but she carefully composes herself. “Liv.” Her voice is gentle now, a far cry from the you-are-so-grounded voice she was using earlier. “I think you just imagined it, you were about to pass out after all.”
“Mom, I wasn’t about to pass out when I de-molecularized, or whatever you call it. I was coherent when Dillon caused the earthquake, and shot fire from his hands. Even earlier I knew what was happening, when Lukas wiped my memory, it’s just when you levitated those books that I was about to pass out! There is no way I imagined it all!”
“Liv. I can assure you, that I never levitated books, you never pha- de-molecularized, and Lukas never wiped your memory. Dillon, I can’t speak for, but I’m sure you imagined that too. Now why don’t you go home, now that you’re better?” She pulls out her cell phone and begins to dial a number.
I nod, because I don’t have another choice. “Come on Mer, you can finally see the inside of my house.”
We turn to go, and a
s we do I hear Mom speak into her phone. “She’s onto us.”
Chapter Seven
“Two giant flat screen Tvs, a ginormous kitchen, secret stairs, a huge backyard with a huge patio, a garden, and a pool….along with a haunted cemetery of course. Your house is the biggest of the old plantation mansions in this town! It is sooooo cool!” I flop onto my beanbag chair with a sigh, and switch my phone to my other hand. Mer has been rambling on and on about my house since she left. As soon as she left she called me.
“Yeah I know Mer, I live here-achoo! Max! Get that thing out of here! You know I’m allergic to it!”
Mer laughs. “Did Max bring his hamster into your room?”
“Yes-achoo!” I grumble. Or try to.
“Technically, I’m in the doorway!” Max calls as he hurries out the door.
“So what’s his name?”
I frown. “Max.”
“No, the hamster!”
“Oh. Max’s hamster is named Hercules: The strongest hamster alive!”
“Did you have to say it in that voice?”
“Yes, otherwise it’s not right.”
“What’s the name of Nate’s hamster?”
I smirk. “Brace yourself, this one’s even worse. His hamster’s name is Zeus: Lord of the Skies!”
“So then what’s the name of your rabbit? Does it live up to the family standards?”
“Her name is S’more, and- a-a-a-achooooo!!!!!” Mer cracks up.
“What happened?
“I don’t-aaaaachoooo!!!!-know, let’s a-achooo!!- ask my brothers!” I glare at them, hovering in the doorway. “Nate, Max, why am I-achoo!-sneezing so much all of the- a-a-achoo!!- sudden?”
Max grins sheepishly. “Sorry Liv we were racing our hamsters and they-”
“You were-aaaachhoooo!!!-what?”
Nate elbows his brother. “Could you do a worse job of explaining it?” he mutters, then turns back to me. “We built a lego track for our hamsters to race on” He gestures behind him. “The finish line was right outside your door, but I guess the hamsters didn’t want to stop racing, so they came in here and…..we lost them.”
I jump to my feet. “You know I’m-aaaaachhhoooooo!!!-allergic to-aaachoooo!!-them!”
Max and Nate look at each other and laugh. “Yeah.” Says Max. “We know you’re allergic to hamsters and only hamsters.”
“And sometimes pollen in the spring.” Nate adds.
“Yeah. Anyway, we know you’re allergic to hamsters and no other animals. It’s hilarious! We didn’t mean to bring them in here though.”
“A-a-a-a-a-a-a-achoooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!” I think I’ve figured out how this sneezing/hamster thing works.
I reach out, just behind my beanbag, and catch a gold hamster in my hand. “Take Zeus- aaaachooo- now!” Nate snatches Zeus away from me, and I reach behind me again, and grab a gray hamster. “Now- achoo!- Hercules.”
When my brothers both have their hamsters, I shout “Get those things out of here! Also, close the door behind you. Thanks.”
As soon as their gone, I pick my phone back up. “Ok, as I was trying to say before we started talking about hamsters, I know my mom wasn’t telling the truth about us having ‘powers’ or whatever you want to call them, and I need to know the truth and…….Lukas just got home from the hospital.”
“You’re going to confront Lukas?!” Mer squeals.
“Well, maybe, but I want to know if you think it’s a good idea.”
“What time do you usually eat dinner?”
“Um…….Gram’s usually done making it by about 6:15, and we usually eat around 6:30.”
“It’s only 5:27! You should totally do it! Go down to his little shack, and confront him!”
“His shack’s not that small, you know, I think.”
“OMG!!!!” Mer screams into my ear, and I hold the phone away from myself while she shouts. “Do you think he’s going to answer your questions?”
“That’s the idea.”
“But do you think he’ll answer them truthfully? Because he likes you?”
“Oh, not this again!” I bring the phone back to my ear. “Why would he like me exactly?”
“Oooooh!!! A boy likes you Liv? I’m telling Mom!” Nate shouts through my door.
“Keep those hamsters away from me!” I call back. “Well, Mer?”
“Obviously, he likes you because he was trying to rescue you and all that. Remember? Earlier? The fire at school?”
“Mer, that wasn’t out of personal feeling towards me, that was because he has to protect me. He has to protect my whole family, if my theory is correct.”
“What’s your theory? Is it that he has to protect you and your family out of love for you?”
“If we weren’t talking on the phone, I’d slap you.” I tell her. “So Lukas and my mom act like they’ve known each other for a long time. Not like they’re necessarily friends, just like they’ve known each other. Only, there’s no possible way that they could know each other that well, because Lukas is seventeen.”
“So your theory is…..Lukas is immortal?”
“Yes. No. I don’t know. Sort of.” I sigh.
“Well quit wasting your time and go talk to him! Confront him! Demand answers!”
“Ok, ok, I’m going. Bye Mer.”
“Bye Liv! Good luck!” She hangs up and I go downstairs, and over to the back door. As I pass the kitchen I see Gram.
“I’m going outside Gram!” I call to her.
“Ok sweetie!” She calls back. “But don’t be too long, it’s already 5:35!”
“Ok!”
I run down the stairs of our giant wooden deck and sprint across the yard to the back right corner, where, pushed up against the fence, there is a shack. A light is on inside, so I decide Lukas must be home, but suddenly I don’t want to do this. Butterflies fly frantically around in my stomach, and I’m afraid to find out what Lukas might have to tell me but…..then again, if I have superpowers, I need to know about it. I push down my fear, reach up and knock.
The door swings open and Lukas is standing there, holding a pencil, and a TV remote and looking bemused. “Liv?” He asks. “What are you doing here?”
“Are you doing homework while watching TV?”
“Um…” He gives me a sideways part-grin. “Yeah.”
It takes all my willpower not to let my jaw fall open, because if I do, I’m sure it will hit the floor. Lukas, grumpy Lukas, just gave me a crooked grin. What is the world coming to?
I’m tempted to ask him that question, but instead I ask. “Can I come in?” He doesn’t ask why, in fact, he doesn’t say anything, he just steps back and holds the door open.
His ‘shack’ isn’t nearly as small as either Mer or I imagined it. It’s not large either though, having just a small kitchen with a stove, a sink, and an empty patch of counter for preparing food. There are cabinets above and below the counters too. After the kitchen there is a small room-well not technically a room- there are no walls separating it from the Tv room, so really it’s a space, or half a room, with a small, round table in the middle of it. There are four chairs around the table, though I can’t imagine why if Lukas is the only one who eats here. The back door is also in this room. After this there is a small room with only enough space for a small couch, and the small TV set. Near the front door there is a bathroom, and next to the small kitchen there is a closed door that must lead to a bedroom.
“So….” I say, stalling for time. “How are your battle scars?” I gesture at his swollen nose, split lip, and black eye, not to mention various other scrapes and bruises that dot his arms.
He frowns, not falling for it. “Fine. Now, once again. Liv, what are you doing here?”
“Lukas, I have a few questions to ask you, if you don’t mind?”
“What is this, an interrogation?” When I don’t say anything, he shrugs. “Ask away.” He sounds both reluctant and eager at the same time. His eyes hold a glint of excitement.
/> Ok. What should I start with? How about did you awaken my superpowers? No. How lame does that sound? How about do you, me, Dillon and my mom have superpowers? Absolutely not, that’s just weird. Before my brain can make up it’s mind, my mouth decides to speak.
“Why did you try to make me forget what happened in the graveyard that night?”
He stares at me, utterly shocked. “You remember! How much do you remember exactly?”
“All of it. Every single little bit.” I recount all of it, straight up to mine and Mom’s conversation in the hospital. “So who was it she called, you?”
Lukas shakes his head. “No, it was probably Izabel. Although, I don’t think she thought you knew for sure then, she was probably being over dramatic or you didn’t catch the whole conversation.”
“You say my grandmother’s first name like you know her well, and you know that my mom has a flare for drama, how?”
“I’ve been alive a long, long time Liv. Well, sort of. It’s complicated.”
“Are you going to tell me how and why we all have powers?”
He grabs my wrist. “Come with me.”
I stare. His hand is in an iron grip around my wrist. “Well, it’s not like I really have a choiiiiiiiiiiiiiceeeeeee!!!!!!” I shriek as Lukas jumps into the air and through the ceiling, pulling me with him. We rocket upwards and then drop back down and land on the roof.
“Oh my god. Oh my god.” I say, shaking. “H-h-How did you do that?”
Lukas turns to face me. “Are you sure you want to hear this Liv? This is your last to chance to live a normal life.” He asks after I stop babbling.
“It’s not ever going to be normal again after today, and after being pulled through your ceiling without leaving so much as a dent. Plus the look on your face tells me that I have to hear this, whether you say I have a choice or not.” I say seriously, if a bit breathlessly. I'm still recovering from being dragged through the ceiling like I have no substance. It's a little disconcerting.
“Ok. Here it goes.” He takes a deep breath. “For generations your ancestors have been looking after this cemetery. The eldest daughter is given the task of looking after this place, keeping our……...enemies from reaching it.”
Seventh (The Hafling Chronicles Book 1) Page 4