by Daise, Sonny
“I came back, but before I could see where I was, I knocked over the lamp; that’s all.”
“Get some sleep,” I sighed with relief. “And clean that up.”
Dante and I helped pick up the pieces of glass. Once the floor was clean, we went back downstairs.
“So, what are you planning to do tomorrow?”
“I think there’s something I need to take care of tonight,” I sighed.
“No, you need to get some sleep. It can wait.”
“No it can’t.”
“Well, I don’t know where you need to go, but I’m not taking you until tomorrow.”
I closed my eyes, and imagined the house. I imagined Ann sitting there, feeling satisfied with herself. I knew she had a plan. I knew she wouldn’t give her powers away and then explain how they were used because she was scared for her life. She had another plan, but when I’m through with her, she won’t remember a thing.
I opened my eyes; blue and green swirls surrounded me, and Dante’s hand was nowhere near mine. He stood across the room, staring with his eyes wide open. He was about to speak, but before I could hear him out, I was gone.
Standing in the living room, on the blood-stained floor, I looked around with caution. I knew she was somewhere—waiting. I went invisible and searched the house.
The last place I checked—her bedroom—was where I found her. She was sleeping peacefully, no doubt dreaming about the day she would rule the Alliance, and probably the world. She didn’t look the part, but she was, without a doubt, evil.
I placed my hand on her forehead; I needed her to forget everything. The only thing I would let her remember, was her name.
When she woke up, she stared at me. Her gaze showed no hate, no fear, no love—nothing.
“Who are you?”
“The more important question is, who are you?” I said. “How do you want to lead your life?”
“I—I don’t know.”
“Your name is Ann, and you want to help people. There is an evil woman named Debby, you should avoid her at all costs. More than that, you need to find what makes you happy in life. You’ve just been given a second chance—something a lot of people never get. So, how are you going to use it?”
“I don’t remember anything. I don’t remember what I did or why I need a second chance, but I’m sorry. Who are you? An angel?”
I stopped and thought for a moment. If Ann was going to do better, maybe she deserved to live a good life, a life where she didn’t have a dream that would hurt so many people.
“Yes, I’m an angel. I’ll come to see you from time to time, and when I do… you better be making the best of this.”
“I will I promise, but what am I supposed to do?”
“Try your best to lead a life that you can be proud of. Don’t do things that are good for you, but bad for others. It’s okay to make yourself happy, but you can’t hurt other people in the process.”
“Thank you,” she said.
“No problem, I will be back,” I said it not as a threat, but a promise. I could forgive what she had done, not because she deserved it, or because she decided to change on her own, but because she now had no idea what she had done. “One more thing, you tell no one about what you’ve seen, not a word, got it?”
“I’ll never tell.”
“Go back to sleep,” I said as I imagined Grace’s house. I Imagined the couch, and Dante sitting there waiting for me to return. Soon blue and green swirls surrounded me, and no more than a second later, I was gone.
“What happened?” Dante demanded the second I appeared.
“We have one less person to worry about. Not only did I make Ann forget, I told her she was a good person, and she needed to start acting like one. She thought I was an angel,” I smiled.
“That’s great, but now you need to get some sleep.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right.”
I didn’t have a concrete plan in mind. I probably should have, but on the bright side, I had a dream about what would happen tomorrow.
It was glorious; thousands of imprisoned people around the world were set free. We took down the Alliance, but the dream cut off in a pivotal scene.
I woke up covered in sweat. I was sprawled out across the couch, and Dante was lying on the floor, looking uncomfortable. I turned over and stared at him for a few moments. The dream I had was a magnificent dream and a horrific nightmare all rolled into one. It felt as if, second by second, the details disappeared, and soon I was left with nothing. It was strange; I should have remembered, but I’d had dreams before where I’d forgotten them almost immediately after I’d woken up. This was different; it felt like this dream should have been burned into my brain.
I shrugged it off and sat there. That’s when I realized, I was sitting there with my hand on my forehead. Did I make myself forget? I wouldn’t think that would be possible, but if it was, it was nice to know for future reference.
Dante turned over and looked up at me with half-opened eyes. He smiled and for a moment, I got the same feeling I’d had many times before. I wanted to run; I wanted to be normal, and I wanted to be with him.
“What time is it?” he yawned.
“I don’t know, but I don’t think I can fall back asleep.”
“Why?”
“I had a nightmare,” I said, embarrassed. He got up and sat next to me on the couch. I had the only blanket, and as he sat, I threw it over him.
“What was it about?”
“The Alliance, but I don’t remember what happened.”
“I’ll go get you some water and see what time it is.” He was trying not to sound as nervous as he looked. I forgot about his dreams of us; he knew my dreams always meant something, and now we were both worried.
He came back in with two glasses of water. He sat across from me and just stared. It looked as if he was concentrating on something.
“What?” I asked when I couldn’t handle it anymore.
“It’s only three, are you sure you can’t go back to sleep?” he said as he snapped out of it.
“No, but you can go back to sleep if you want. Here take the couch,” I offered as I got up.
“No, I’m fine. I’ll stay up with you.”
“Okay,” I smiled as I got back under the blanket.
“So, what is your absolute favorite thing to do? Before everything happened, I mean.”
“I would have to say hanging out with you—well and Grace obviously, how about you?” I wondered.
“Well, lately, dreaming. I’ve been having some crazy dreams—most of them were about you. Us playing in my backyard, we couldn’t have been much older than ten. I just don’t understand why I’m having these dreams.”
“I have a theory.” It was a theory that I just came up with. In my mind, there were two Dante’s, but now I wholeheartedly believed that there was only one. “Dante’s ghost came to me the other day. He said the future no longer exists. I mean, there will be a future, just not the one that I came from. So if that’s true, that means Dante never died, I think his ghost—“
“You think… you think that he’s a part of me now?”
I sighed. I didn’t know how else to explain it, “basically, yeah.”
“Wow, so I guess we’ve already been friends….”
“In the best of my memories and in your dreams, yes,” I said. “But it’s alright if you still want to be only friends.”
He looked down, “okay.”
“So, how do you think tomorrow’s going to go? I’m a little concerned,” I admitted.
“I don’t know. I have no idea what to imagine. My dreams have helped me in other aspects of this, but I can’t even imagine how the Alliance is when they’re prepared and determined enough to get something.”
“Yeah, I don’t know what to expect either; I don’t think any of us do.”
We sat there for a while, huddled under the blanket together, even though it was no colder than sixty degrees Fahrenheit. After a whil
e, Dante fell asleep, and I was left alone with my thoughts.
I looked toward the window; the sun was just about to come up. I saw something blur past it. Dante was fast asleep next to me, and I didn’t want to bother him, so I got up and looked out the peep hole. I saw nothing. I looked for a few more seconds and finally, saw someone walking around the front yard. It was a girl with long, flowing brunette hair; she wore a dress that was torn near the bottom. She looked like she couldn’t possibly be any trouble. In fact, she looked like she might be in trouble.
I opened the door slowly, trying not to wake Dante. When she saw me, she stopped dead in her tracks and stared at me. I went closer to her; she looked frightened.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Yes, but you’re not,” she said in a small, sweet, but disturbingly truthful voice.
“What do you mean?” I wondered.
“You’re not the only one who can see things. I can see your future; I can see your present. I can see you whenever I want to, I see everything.” She looked insane. Her eyes were wide, and she never blinked. Her pale blue eyes were burning into mine; it was uncomfortable to say the least.
“So…” I began to question.
“I was recruited by the Alliance when I was only fifteen. They had a very specific assignment for me, and my powers have been developed to serve that purpose and that purpose only.”
“So what was your assignment?”
“To watch you, the Alliance isn’t all seeing, but I am. I’ve been hired to catch you, Scarlett Summers.”
“So why are you telling me all this?” I asked. I wasn’t quite afraid, if her only power was to watch me, then this was a fight I knew I could win.
“I thought it was only fair, kind of a last request that you didn’t get to choose.” Before she even finished the sentence, she lunged at me. I ran down the street, but I couldn’t concentrate enough to go invisible. I couldn’t concentrate enough to see if Dante’s power would work for me again, either. I ran around the corner and found a patch of woods to hide in, but I knew I couldn’t hide. I had just enough time to concentrate on going invisible, and once I was, I walked out of the woods.
She was standing right in front of me, staring deep into my soul, it seemed. There was no way she could see me, so I concentrated on not giving myself away. Not making a sound, not moving the smallest speck of dirt on the ground. She started laughing, and I looked over curiously.
“Oh, Scarlett, did you not hear me? I see everything.” She ran towards me at an incredible speed. I became visible, not on purpose; I had been taken by surprise, and now I was frightened.
I ran across the street, and she followed behind me. It felt like I was running in slow motion, and she wasn’t far behind me. I heard a car speeding toward us, reinforcements. They must have been going at least seventy miles per hour, and I was right; they were coming to help, not her, but me. I felt a gust of wind as the car sped past me. I heard a loud sound as her body met the front of the car, I couldn’t believe it, but it was even louder when she hit the ground. She rolled five feet, leaving a trail of blood behind her. I stared at her lifeless body, and when I could finally look away, I knew exactly who had saved me.
Dante got out of the car, looking shaken. He ran over to me and put his arms around me. Without warning, tears filled up my eyes, and I pressed my face into his chest. I couldn’t hold back my sobs, but he didn’t care; he stared ahead at the girl he just killed.
“They know—they know we’re coming,” I mumbled into his chest.
“What?”
“That girl, she could see my future; she could see what I was doing at any point in time, and she was coming for me.”
“We need to get out of here; I’m sure the police will be coming soon.”
“You’re right,” I agreed. “Maybe we should put your car in the garage.”
When we got back to Grace’s, she and Rose were already awake. They were getting ready for the day. I was starting to get really nervous. I pulled Dante aside.
“I don’t know about this,” I sighed. He waited for me to continue. “I mean, maybe we should find more people, or find some information that could help us, we need to be prepared.”
“I think you’re right, but we can’t wait too long.”
“We need to tell Rose and Grace.”
After I told them, they both took a deep breath. Then Dante’s phone rang.
“Oh, hey Cooper,” Dante said as he answered. “Okay, we’ll see you guys in a while.”
“Dante,” I whispered. He looked over. “You should ask them if they can pick up Allison on the way, actually…” I said as I stopped to think, Annabelle. We should have her come, too, the only problem—I didn’t know her number.
“Do you think you could pick someone up on the way?” Dante asked. “Her name is Allison. I’ll call her and let her know, and if she says no, I’ll call you. Yeah her address is—”
He continued talking, but I was transfixed by the story on the news. A classroom of students and the substitute teacher had not been seen or heard from since…Thursday. I kept watching, hoping, praying that it wasn’t Sunny Bay High School, but it was.
Officials and the principal tried to get ahold of the families, but they could not reach a single one. Apparently, it was one of the weirdest things any of the reporters—and probably the police—had ever heard of. There I go, getting myself into trouble again, getting all of these people into trouble, and now it’s on the news. Did I learn nothing the last time?
“Dante,” I whispered. I wasn’t sure if he heard me, it was barely audible. “Dante,” I said a little louder.
“What?”
“Remember the first time you saw me invisible?” I said, without a hint of emotion as I stared wide-eyed at the TV.
“Yeah, at school….”
“You weren’t the only one; a whole classroom saw.” He turned his gaze toward the TV and gasped.
“What are we going to do?”
“Save them, if we can,” I muttered.
I sat cross-legged in front of the TV for hours, watching for updates—updates I knew somewhere in the back of my mind, would never come. I flipped through the channels, but it was all the same. Same shocked reporters, same policemen who had ‘no comment’ on the story. No one knew what was going on, but they were desperate to find out. Now that I thought about it, I was glad they were finding nothing more to the story, I couldn’t be responsible for more people going missing. I thought one was bad, but now I needed to find an entire class.
The doorbell rang, and I got up to answer it. Dante was taking a shower. Rose and Grace were off putting more highlights in Grace’s hair. She was particularly fond of our bright-red hair. I was going to offer to just imagine it, but that was something I rarely did, and I wasn’t sure how much control I had over that power.
“Hello, I’m Scarlett.”
“Hi, I’m Lily. This is Jackson, and Rachel.”
“Nice to meet you,” I said with a smile.
Jackson and Rachel both had striking features, jet-black hair and the bluest of eyes. I had no doubt that they were brother and sister.
I looked over to Lily. The way she stood in the doorway, looking uncomfortable, reminded me of when I first met her. I didn’t want things to start out rough with her again; we had just started getting closer when I left. Standing right next to her, looking just as uncomfortable, was Allison. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see her staring at me. Her gaze went from Cooper to me and back and forth from there. I knew she recognized him; I just wasn’t sure what she would do.
“So, where is everyone?” Cooper asked.
“Oh, hey guys come down here,” I called upstairs.
Rose and Grace came down the stairs along with unbearable fumes. Dante was still in the shower. Everyone introduced themselves; they were all chatting and getting to know each other, but my mind was elsewhere.
A few minutes later, I looked next to me, and Dante was standing ther
e. I wondered how long he had been there; I hadn’t even noticed.
“So when are we leaving?” Lily asked.
“Oh, there’s been a change of plans, were not going today. We need to get more information,” Dante answered.
“Okay, well, how do you plan on doing that?” Cooper asked me with curiosity.
“I—I don’t know. I’m sorry; I’ve been a little preoccupied this morning. Something happened the other day at school, now an entire class is missing.”
“All the more reason to hurry, you believe it was the Alliance, right?” Cooper wondered.
“Yes, I know it was the Alliance, what else could it be?” I shrugged, and he shrugged too.
“Well, I have good news. I know someone who used to be in the Alliance. Usually they kill whoever tries to leave, but they got away, and they know a lot,” Cooper said with a smile on his face.
“Great, so where are we going?”
“They don’t live too far from here.”
Chapter 9: Old Friend
We drove up to an old abandoned-looking house; vines covered the sides. I looked over at Dante; he shared the same worried glance. Whoever this was, used to be in the Alliance, and that was enough reason to be concerned.
Cooper didn’t knock; he just walked right in, which made me a little more nervous. The house was clean, but no one appeared to be home. We walked around the house, which was much larger than it looked from the outside, and finally, we found someone—Elizabeth.
“Hey Cooper, Lily, what are you doing back here?” She asked.
“We came to get answers,” Cooper replied, “about the Alliance.”
Elizabeth was part of the Alliance? I felt my heart sink. I couldn’t believe it, sweet, warm-hearted Elizabeth, there was no way.
“Well, what do you need to know?”
“Actually, I was hoping we could talk to Grandpa.”
He sat us down, and got ready to tell a story. His eyes lit up. He searched for each word with care, words to provoke excitement, and shock. He didn’t look at any of us as he organized all of his thoughts in his head. When he was ready to begin, he looked around at each of us, when he got to me, he took a deep breath. Then he stopped again as if the words had vanished, as if, for some reason, he felt the need to tell a new story—a story he had never rehearsed.