by Daise, Sonny
“Come in,” he sighed.
He led us over to the couch and told us to have a seat. The house looked different; it wasn’t neat and tidy like it had been when we were here before.
“So, if you don’t mind me asking, where is your wife?” I asked.
“A lot has been going on lately, we’re getting a divorce.”
“Where are your children?”
“How do you know so much about me?”
“It’s a long story,” I answered.
“My daughter, Lily went with her mother, and my son, Cooper is here with me.”
“I can tell that you miss them, and if you help us, I can help you talk to your wife,” I promised.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, she doesn’t want anything to do with me.”
“Why?” I asked.
I knew I was being too nosey, but if this were the future, I would have been asking all of these questions and more. I would have been doing everything in my power to get them back together.
“This wasn’t the life she wanted. She loved helping people, but most of the people that come to us aren’t in any real danger. She got sick of this life.”
“That’s not the Elizabeth I knew,” I blurted and immediately regretted it.
“What did you say?” George asked.
“Can you keep a secret?” I sighed. “I came back from the future; we were staying here with you and Elizabeth. I was cornered by the Alliance; I had no other choice. Violet, Elizabeth’s sister, is my mom.”
“Wow,” he said in wonder.
“Let’s forget about that for now,” I said as I changed my hair back to my natural color. George’s eyes opened wide. “We need to beat Ann and Nurse Debby. They want to take everyone’s powers. They want to take over the Alliance; the world.”
“Let’s say I believe you. There is no way the four of us can do this ourselves.”
“How about eight?” I asked. “We’re going to get Elizabeth and Lily back here, and we have two people waiting for us.”
“I don’t think I can. I’m sorry.”
“Fine, thanks for your time, and everything I said… let’s keep it between us,” I mumbled as I grabbed Dante’s hand. Soon we were back at the car with Grace and Rose. “I’ll be right back.”
I ran toward Meadowbrook. I had an idea, and I needed to get something. I ran in and looked everywhere, if Debby planned to drug us, she had to have a stash somewhere. Finally, I found a small box under the desk; there was a piece of paper at the bottom. The orange pills took away powers for a short period of time. The blue pills were sleeping pills—strong sleeping pills; two would knock you out almost immediately. I grabbed the whole bottle and ran back to the car.
I wasn’t going to give up hope on George and Elizabeth, but aside from a safe place to stay, I didn’t see them being of much help. I would help them get back together, once I could stop to breathe. Right now, we needed to find somewhere to stay, somewhere close to Sunny Bay.
As I sat in the car, I realized that I couldn’t go on nagging about my misfortunes. It only seemed to make matters worse. It kept everything right there in the front of my mind day in and day out. I was going to get past this once and for all, and then I was going to help George and Elizabeth. I would set everyone free that the Alliance had captured, and the Alliance wouldn’t know what hit them when I was through. In fact, they probably wouldn’t even know who they were or that the Alliance ever existed. It was fool proof, and it was time for me to do what I’d wanted to do for what seemed like so long now.
We decided it was probably best to go back to Grace’s house. She told us it wasn’t unusual for her mom to be gone for weeks at a time. It was our only option aside from a hotel room. When we arrived, the front door was open. Grace looked at us cautiously before walking to the door. I followed close behind her, and Dante walked in front of her. There was broken glass on the living room floor, but Grace said nothing appeared to be missing. I had a hunch that I knew who it was—Ann. I wondered when she came, before she took Rose to Meadowbrook, or after. I also wondered if she paid George a visit yet, I hoped he and Cooper were okay.
“Dante, can I talk to you for a minute?” I asked as I dragged him into the spare bedroom.
“What?” he asked skeptically as I closed the door.
“I’m going to let Rose take the guest room. Tonight I want you to take me by my house.”
“Why?”
“Step one in my plan,” I smiled. “C’mon let’s go get Rose.”
She was still passed out in the back of the car. Dante picked her up with ease and took her upstairs to the guest room. Grace went to bed, and that left me and Dante on the couch. I didn’t know what to say to him, if I talked about my feelings, it would freak him out. After all, he wasn’t the guy who fell in love with me.
“So when do you want me to take you to your house?” he asked.
“Eh, in a little while, I’m not exactly excited about this, but it has to be done.”
“What exactly has to be done?”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of it. I just need you to take me there.”
“Alright,” he sighed as he stared at me.
“What?” I said as I got up to look in the mirror.
“Have you ever had déjà vu, and you didn’t know why? Something felt so familiar… a feeling, or—never mind,” he laughed.
“What are you thinking about?” I wondered.
“That dream, I mean, I could almost call it a nightmare, but I could also call it the best memory I have,” he said, now serious.
I closed my eyes and remembered. It was hard, and we had fights, but it was all worth it. The night at the lake, and the last night, were the best memories I had.
When I opened my eyes, there was less than an inch between us. Within a second, the inch turned into nothing, but before his lips could reach mine, I heard footsteps less than five feet away. I turned toward them; Grace stood there with two pillows and a stack of blankets.
“Sorry for interrupting,” she said as she put the blankets down and walked away.
“I’m sorry,” he said as he moved to the other side of the couch.
“For what?”
“Let’s go,” he said as he held his hand out. I grabbed it and soon we were standing in my bedroom. He went to let go of my hand, but I squeezed it tighter and shut my eyes and within seconds, we were both invisible.
“Be quiet, okay?” I said.
“Yeah.”
I walked down the stairs. Ann was sitting in the kitchen with a drink in front of her. She looked excited, but worried.
I took the bottle of pills out of my pocket and shook two out into my hand. She looked toward the window, and stared outside. This was my chance. I walked over to the table without making a sound and dropped the pills into her drink. She turned around and picked the glass up, swishing it around. I held my breath, did she somehow know? She took a drink, and I relaxed. Now all we had to do was wait.
I went back upstairs and into Ann’s room, I knew she had to have one of those necklaces handy, now I just needed to find it. I looked in her nightstand and sure enough, under a pile of random things, there was a necklace. It glowed when I touched it, and I knew it was the real thing. I put it in my pocket and went back into my room. Dante was still sitting on the bed; I sat next to him.
“Hey, is everything alright?” I asked as I grabbed his hand and went visible.
“Yeah,” he said, sounding a little nervous. “I think we should be friends.”
“Okay,” I replied.
“I mean, first. It seemed to work out well the first time.”
“Yeah, I’d be happy with anything at this point. It was really hard seeing you….”
“Dead,” he said monotonously.
“Yeah,” I sighed.
He put his arms around me and gave me a hug. I was happy to be friends with him, but that wasn’t to say I couldn’t be happier.
“Do you think she’s
asleep yet?” he asked.
“I’ll go check, wait here.”
I crept down the stairs. I didn’t hear anything, so I thought the coast was clear. She was no longer sitting at the table, and her drink was still full. I looked around with caution, but I didn’t see her. The bottle that had been sitting next to her glass was gone.
Before I could register what was going on, loud thudding footsteps raced towards me. I heard glass shattering, and a horrible pain on the top of my head. I fell to the ground, and then everything went black.
“Gotcha,” she laughed when I came to.
One second, I could see and hear clearly. The next, everything went black. This went on for a few minutes. With some effort, I rolled my head over, there was glass underneath me; I felt it cut me as I moved.
My head was turned toward the stairs behind her. Dante knew something was up, and he was coming to help me. He put his finger up to his lips, but I don’t think I could have said anything, even if I wanted to. I was lightheaded, and I couldn’t seem to find my voice. To the left, right behind Ann, was the fireplace. Dante grabbed the poker and came in swinging. I pulled the necklace out of my pocket, and it slipped from my fingers onto the floor. Everything went black, but I could vaguely hear what was going on around me.
“Scarlett!” Dante yelled as he came over to me.
“The—the necklace,” I mumbled and then I was out.
Chapter 8: Hospital
When I woke up, I didn’t recognize anything surrounding me. The blue curtains and plain, white walls, were the sort you would only find in a hospital. Not to mention, the monitors surrounding me. I looked at the chair next to me; I was alone. I sighed.
“You’re awake,” Dante said as he walked through the door. “I’m sorry I left; I went to go get something to drink, are you thirsty?”
“A little,” I croaked. He handed me the bottle. “Where’s the necklace?” He took it out of his pocket and placed it in my hand.
“I’m so sorry,” he said again.
“Did you put it on Ann?” I demanded in a small voice. I knew the chances were slim; he didn’t know about any of that yet.
“Yes,” he smiled.
“How did you know?”
“My dream, remember?” he took the necklace and put it around my neck.
“I wonder how it works,” I said as it lit up.
“I’m one step ahead of you. I asked her. I told her I wouldn’t kill her if she told me.”
“And she actually did?” I said, amazed.
“Yep, if you grab someone’s hand they will forget whatever they know about you, or whatever else you can think of that you don’t want them to remember. If you touch their face, and you want them to forget, they’ll forget just about everything. Except little things like their name, unless of course, you want them to forget that, too.”
“I can’t believe she told you that.”
“Well I had a knife to her throat.”
Just as he said that, a nurse came in. She looked shocked. I knew she heard, but she acted as if she didn’t. I reached out for her hand, and she let me grab it.
“What did I come in here for?” she said to herself. I smiled, and Dante smiled back. “Do you need anything?” She finally said, sounding frustrated.
“Can you come back in a minute?” I asked.
“Sure,” she said as she started walking to the door.
“Could you take me somewhere?” I asked Dante.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, you’re in really bad shape, Scarlett.”
“I know, I know. I need to keep the plan going, and I can’t if I have stitches on the back of my neck and head.”
“So where exactly do you want me to take you?” He asked, confused.
“Back to George’s, Cooper can heal people—well, I hope he can.” I said, unsure of whether or not that too could have changed.
“Alright, fine.”
The nurse walked back in and came to my side.
“What did you need?” she asked.
“Come here.”
When she came closer, I grabbed her hand. We were never here.
Still holding her hand, I grabbed Dante’s. As the blue and green swirls began, I let go of her. Less than a second later, we were gone.
It was late, but I needed to see Cooper. I decided to skip the part where we had to beg George to come in and headed straight for Cooper’s window. I knocked and soon a light turned on.
“Who are you?” he asked as he opened the window.
“Scarlett, I knew you, but you wouldn’t remember. I need your help.”
He reluctantly agreed to come outside. I knew I could tell Cooper everything, and he would at least try to believe. He listened intently.
“So you’re saying you’re planning to take on the Alliance?”
“Yes, but I can’t do that unless you help me.”
“You want me to help you take on the Alliance?” he said, I was about to correct him, and tell him what I actually needed, but he started talking again. “Yes.”
“Yes?”
“I’ll do it; I’ll help you.”
“Great, but what I was going to ask,” I said as I lifted up my hair. “Could you heal me?”
“Sure, no problem,” he said as he moved closer—too close.
It felt like old times; I felt like I was going to puke. I didn’t want to make the same mistakes I made last time, now I knew Cooper was my cousin, and even though I wanted my identity to remain secret, I needed to tell him.
“I left something out of my story,” I said. “Can you keep a secret?”
“Sure,” he replied. I could tell he was telling the truth.
“Promise?” I asked seriously. He nodded. “I’m your cousin; your aunt Violet is my mom.”
“Wow,” he said, he sounded a little embarrassed, but I knew it would be better to tell him now rather than later.
“You can’t tell,” I reminded him.
“I know.”
“And there’s a girl, she’s seen you in her head. She can see the future, like I can, but only one moment at a time. She’s seen you two together; I think you should meet her.”
“First let’s heal you.” He said as he brought his hands up to my neck and then up to the top of my head. You couldn’t tell because of my red hair, but it was stained with blood, and I needed a shower badly.
The pain vanished with the wounds, and soon I knew there was nothing left but the sticky blood lingering in my hair.
“Okay, so we need you to come back with us, but we teleported here, and I don’t think we would be able to take you with us that way,” I explained.
“Give me the directions and I’ll drive, I should probably wait to tell my dad too, I don’t think he’s in any shape to help; neither is my mom, but my sister—“
“Lily,” I smiled.
“Yes, Lily, she would probably love to help.”
“As long as it’s okay with your parents,” I agreed.
He found a map, and we tried to give him the best directions to Grace’s house. Dante gave him his cell-phone number and Cooper said he would call in the morning. Once Cooper was back inside, we left.
When we got back to Grace’s, Rose was awake. She and Grace were sitting on the couch waiting for us to return.
“What happened to you guys?” Grace demanded. “I was worried.”
“We’re fine,” I assured her. “We found a few friends to help us.” I looked over at Dante, “I don’t think it would be a horrible idea to get Allison’s help either, though if there’s a fight, we might want to keep her away.”
“Okay,” he said. “I think you should get some sleep.”
“Yeah, that’s not a bad idea,” I agreed.
“I’ll see you guys in the morning,” Grace said as she walked to her room.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Rose asked.
“Yeah, let’s go to the guest room, you can stay there tonight.”
We went ups
tairs to the guest room and sat down on the bed. Rose stalled for a few minutes; she didn’t know what to say. I could tell something was bothering her.
“I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you before. It’s kind of hard to shrug off whatever you said now, it’s pretty obvious that something’s up.”
“You mean me and Dante just appearing?” I wondered.
“That and everything else. Aside from you going missing, it was just a normal Saturday afternoon when Mom dragged me out to the car and drove me to that awful place.”
“Has anything weird happened to you, something you were too afraid to tell anyone?”
“I’ve had strange dreams, dreams where I could go—” She stopped and looked down.
“In the future, or in the past… when did you have these dreams?” I demanded.
“Ever since you started acting weird. I just figured that was why, but watch.” She closed her eyes, and she was gone.
“Rose,” I said after a minute of waiting for her to return. Nothing happened.
I waited for another five minutes, then, I started getting worried.
I ran back downstairs Grace was already in bed; I went over to Dante.
“Rose is gone,” I cried.
“Where did she go?” he asked.
“I don’t know. She was talking about her dreams. She remembered going into the past, then she just disappeared. I don’t know—“
“Okay, calm down. I’m sure she knows what she’s doing. Maybe she got sidetracked, or maybe she went to go see something. Maybe she found some sort of clue that will help us. It could be anything; you just need to be patient.”
“Okay,” I took a deep breath. “You’re right.”
I wanted to cuddle up next to him, something major would happen tomorrow and that was the only thing that would help me feel better. We were friends; the most he would be able to do to help is talk to me, but I didn’t want to talk. Talking about it would probably make me more nervous.
There was a crashing sound upstairs. Dante looked over at me, and I glanced back before I jumped up and ran up the stairs. When I reached the guest room, Rose was standing there with a broken lamp.
“What happened?” Dante asked before I could find the words.