by Celeste Raye
“I know you're not sleeping, Dahlia.”
“I was hoping that you would think I was.”
“Why?”
“Come on, you know why. Last thing I want to do is talk about this.”
“I know that you don't want to talk about it, but we need to. We need to think about this because it is the only way that I am ever going to be able to forgive myself. You have to understand that. This is something that I have to do.”
“I do understand it, I really do. I am just saying why does it have to be you? Of all the people. Why does it have to be you that fixes this? Someone else can do it.”
“You said yourself that they could have, but they chose not to. I don't know how I can go on with my life knowing what is going on there.”
“Can it just be enough that you got out?”
Justin almost wished that it was true, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he didn't do it.
“Honestly, I wish it could be enough. I don't want to have to face them again, but I know that we have to.”
Dahlia sighed out loud, and Justin waited for her to answer. As much as she was fighting it, Justin had hope that she would do the right thing. If they weren't going to fix it, then who was?
“Of course I will help you, Justin. I just want to put on record that I disagree wholeheartedly with your plan, but we're in this together.”
Justin smiled because that was pretty much the best thing he could have heard. As much as he wanted to believe that he and Davey could do it by themselves, the truth was that he didn't want to. He wanted Dahlia by his side.
Dahlia was up early, and Justin did not have a choice but to leave with her. She had decided to help take down the orphanage, and hopefully this time, the witches with it. Dahlia made it clear that if he wanted to get it done, then they had a few people that they needed to talk to. Justin was fine with it, even though they had stayed up all night and had not gotten much sleep.
“We should at least say goodbye to Davey before we go.”
“We will see Davey soon enough. You shouldn't worry about it.”
Justin agreed, but he wondered if Dahlia was trying to put him off. He still had a lot of questions and Dahlia was still transparent in her desire to not go forward.
“So where are we going?”
“We're going to meet with some witches that I know. I meant it before when I said that we couldn’t do this by ourselves. We're going to have to get some help.”
“Are these witches that you trust?”
“Trust is not so easy in our world. You'll learn that soon enough. I don't know if I trust them, but they may be able to help us. I know that they do not agree with hurting humans, and especially not children. It might just be the extra little bit that pulls them over the top so that they will agree to help us.”
“Are you sure you're just not trying to sidetrack me so that I won’t want to do this?”
“I’ve made it clear how I feel about it, Justin. I promised to help you; that's exactly what I'm going to do. If you can't move on until this is done, then it has to be done. So whatever reason we met each other, we will be able to find out. But I can’t move on without you.”
It was hard for her to say it. Justin could see it in the way that she was fidgeting the whole time. He wanted to say something back equally as poetic, but in the end, he just pulled her in for a kiss. That was all he was thinking about at the moment, and the physical touch seemed to calm them both down.
“You are amazing, Dahlia. I've told you that, right?”
She smiled and laughed. “You have said something like that the few times, but it's usually in the middle of making love, so I don't pay much attention to it.”
He chuckled at her answer. “It doesn't matter when it is said, Dahlia. I probably see that as always valid. You are amazing. I am so lucky to have found you.”
“You didn't find me, Justin. Like I told you before, it was fated.”
He just smiled because Justin felt the same way.
Chapter Twenty
Davey woke up to a sick feeling in his head. He had obviously drunk too much the night before, and it took him a minute to pull himself together. As much as he was used to having a drink or two to calm himself down, it was clear that he had had too much this time. His head was killing him, and it took several moments to remember the night before. It was something that he had wanted for so long that a part of him was afraid that he had made it all up.
He was so afraid of that being the case that he basically sprinted into the guest room. It all seemed to be too surreal, and when he got there and found that the bed was empty, Davey convinced himself that it had all been some kind of very real-feeling elaborate dream. It wasn't something that he was used to doing but considering the amount of pressure he’d been under; it did not seem that farfetched to him.
Davey felt a sense of loss that he did not understand. He’d finally thought that he had all the answers.
He sat out on the edge of the bed, and sadness washed over him. Davey shook his head, trying to rattle loose the cobwebs. He put his head in his hands.
Davey was now convinced that it had all been a figment of his imagination. Or a dream. It really didn't matter; all that mattered was the fact that it wasn't real.
After he had wallowed in his sorrow for a little bit, Davey stood up and started to leave the room. He was still shaking inside. Then, as he looked over at the nightstand, he saw a note. The note had not been there the night before, which told him it wasn't a dream. It really happened. He really talked to a bear-shifter and a witch the night before. They had agreed to help him.
“Davey, we went to go get reinforcements. We will be back soon.”
It was signed by Justin and Dahlia, and he started to relax again. Help was coming for the one thing that he hadn't been able to stop, the most horrible thing that Davey had ever experienced in his life. It was finally going to be over, and Davey was finally going to be free.
A little later, while Davey was trying to self-medicate the hangover from drinking the night before, he heard a knock at the door and got excited. The note had said that they would be back soon, so he was convinced that his visitors were back.
“Coming!” he hollered to them and went to unlock the door.
He didn't even look through the peep-hole, because he was so convinced that he already knew who it was.
Davey got to the door, and he immediately knew that the person there was not there to help. It was the same woman that he was fighting against. One of the Stein witches was staring back at him.
“I hear that you have been a naughty boy, Davey. I think it's time for us to finally have a chat, don't you think? One that you’ll remember for the rest of your life, however long that’s going to be.”
As soon as Dahlia and Justin got close to Davey’s house, they knew something was wrong. Dahlia looked over at him and tried to send him a warning.
“You don't know if you're right or not.”
Justin agreed, but Dahlia could tell that he was feeling the same thing that she was feeling.
It wasn’t a feeling like there were witches present, but they had left their scent on the area. She knew that something had happened. Witches did not come to see Davey to get to know him better. They were there to silence him, and Dahlia already knew the results.
“Why don't you stay out here, Justin? I will check it out.”
“Do you really think that I will let you do this by yourself?”
“I am afraid that you are going to see something you can't un-see. Sometimes losing your memory isn't the worst thing, Justin.”
“What about you?”
“You can't even imagine everything I've seen. Trust me when I tell you that I have seen it all. So, whatever is on the other side of the door probably isn’t going to keep me up at night.”
Justin did not want to believe that was true. Instead of letting her take the hit for both of them, he moved with her towards the door.
There was no way that he was going to let her do it by herself and Dahlia was relieved when he said as much.
Dahlia had seen a lot in her life, but what she walked into surpassed it all. It was clear almost immediately that Davey was dead, and not just that, but Davey had been in a lot of pain before he passed.
She knew that Justin was going to take it harder than she did. Dahlia was used to how cruel the supernatural world was. It wasn’t that she did not think it was horrible, but Dahlia had learned to somehow compartmentalize it.
Justin was not the same way. He was taking it hard, and when he tried to go towards Davey, she stopped him.
The man was hanging from the ceiling, and he still had objects stuck in his body. Someone wanted information and Dahlia was worried that they had gotten it. There was no way that a human could take torture like that and not give it up.
Immediately, her concerns changed. If Davey had given them some information, then the last place they needed to be was where they were. The danger lied in the fact that Davey knew about their plan. The plan needed to change, and they needed to get the hell out of there.
She growled at Justin and told him that they needed to go.
“We can't just leave him like that.”
“Yeah, we can. That is the only thing we can do right now. There is nothing that we can do for Davey. Davey's gone.”
Justin did not take it well. It was all new to him. She had seen this all before, and as hard as it was, she had certainly seen punished humans that got in the way. Davey knew too much. The witches wouldn’t have let him live as long as he had if they would have known how much he knew.
Justin pulled himself together, and Dahlia was thankful for that. She did not find herself afraid that much, but now it was eating away at her and all she could think about was getting as far away from that place as possible. They were not safe anywhere. But they certainly weren't safe in the Stein coven’s backyard.
They got back in the car and left quickly. Dahlia and Justin didn't say a word to each other until they were back on the interstate and far away from Davey’s house.
Dahlia was the first to say something, and it didn’t help the silence for long. She was thinking, or rather hoping, that Justin would see how dangerous it was and agree to let it go. It wasn't like she wanted what was happening at the orphanage to continue, but she didn't want it to end their life either.
“We still have to help them, Dahlia. Now we have to help them for Davey too. I promised him that we were going to end the witches, and I meant it.”
Dahlia knew that he meant well, but she also knew that he might very well be the death of her. If he didn't get the crazy hero-complex out of his mind, then there was no telling what kind of trouble he was going to get her into.
Chapter Twenty-One
Justin and Dahlia drove far away from his hometown. It had been the only place he had ever really known, but there had not been in a lot of happiness there. Justin was not too upset to see it go. He was more upset about the scene that he could not get out of his mind. Dahlia had been so worried about him seeing something that he wouldn't be able to un-see. That has certainly happened.
Davey was a sweet guy, and his life was put on hold because he wanted to help. To Justin, that was the hardest thing to come to grips with. The fact that Davey was such a good person and all he was trying to do was help kids. Because of that, he had been tortured. Justin knew that Dahlia was afraid that something had been said to the witches, but he wasn't worried about that. What he was worried about was the idea that something like that could happen to Dahlia.
“Are you going to come back to bed?”
“Every time I do, I forget about what is going on, Dahlia.”
She giggled and tried to coax him back to the soft mattress of the hotel’s bed.
“Come on, Justin. I know how to get all of this off of your mind.”
“That’s the problem, Dahlia. I don’t want to forget. I want to help. I want…”
Justin didn't know how to describe it exactly, but he knew that it was something he had to do. He was one of those children that had barely survived. The last thing that Justin wanted to do was help then keep going. He believed that Davey was right. Them knowing about it gave them a responsibility to do something. He was still a little upset and hurt by how Dahlia had brushed it all off.
“I don't know how to describe it to you, Dahlia. You don't feel the same about it as I do. You are fine to walk away from it, and I’m not.”
He could tell that his words had made Dahlia feel shame. He shouldn't hold that against her. Especially considering what he had seen happen to Davey.
“I'm not saying that I am fine to walk away from it, Justin. I just didn't want to make it my fight. You have to understand that our world is different. Things that would never be okay in the human world are a little different to us. We know that certain things have to happen. It isn't like I want it to or that I want the witches to be able to hurt children there forever. They are tyrants at the very least, but at the same time, I know that if we go against them, we are putting targets on our backs. How can we help anyone if we're dead?”
He worried that she was right. Justin was getting some memories back, even though he didn't want to remember them. He knew that as much as he wanted to help, there was a very good chance that they would not be able to stop what happened to the children.
“I know that this can turn out badly Dahlia. I do. I know that this is hard for you, but I also want you to know that you don't have to get involved if you don't want to. I don’t want to make the world more dangerous than it already is. You have your own mission. I have mine. I wish I could explain it better, but I really can't.”
Dahlia understood, but she was not happy with his decision.
“Do you really think that we can't do it?”
“I don't know, Justin. I know that no matter what happens, we will be together, and that is all that matters. I will make sure that I get as many people to help as I possibly can. I do want to help; I mean that. I will get us some more people to fight with us. You’re right; the supernatural world should have stepped in before now.”
Justin agreed that it was time to help, but he was still trying to figure out how it was supposed to all go down. He was worried about Dahlia, and he was also worried about getting involved with more witches. His experiences with them had not been pleasant so far.
Dahlia continued to try to make him feel better, but he knew that the only thing that was going to work, was for the two of them to have all of them behind them. When they were both safe, and he knew that everything was going to be okay, then he could worry about what came next. For now, the only way that he was going to be able to forget the current situation was to get his hands on Dahlia. It certainly worked before.
Justin woke up with a strange dream still in his mind. It was more confusion and a warning from his mother, but this time, he wasn’t sure if he wanted to follow it. Last time he had, he had met Davey, learned so much, but then saw him dead the next day. Things weren’t going to get any better unless he somehow figured out what to listen to and what not to.
He was breathing a little heavy and Dahlia was quickly up next to him, asking him what was going on.
“Was it another dream?”
He agreed, and Justin was still shaken by it. The more he tried to think about it, the more he must have realized how daunting it all was. All of Dahlia’s words were playing loudly in his ear, but he didn’t want to hear about that. What he wanted to hear about was how it was all going to be okay. Justin finally realized that maybe it wasn’t going to be.
“Yeah, they are just so real, and I feel like I am still in them when I wake up. My heart is still racing like I’ve been chased.”
“Who's chasing you?”
“One of the witches I used to live with. Her name was Linda, and everyone would say mean stuff to her because she kept me around. I don’t think that they wanted me to stay as long as I did. I would h
ave been just another one of the kids they sucked dry to stay young if it wasn’t for Linda. I don’t know why, but she always kept me safe from the worst of it. I think me helping them was her way of getting the other women to agree to everything. I could stay as long as they could find me useful.”
“So, what did the dream have to say? Did your mom point you in the right direction?”
Justin was silent for a time because he didn’t want to talk about it. All he was worried about was getting as far away from all of it as he could. He didn’t want to listen to his mom or whoever it was that was navigating his life now. Fate. Destiny. Whatever the hell it was, Justin wanted it to leave him out of it all. He didn’t want anyone putting their hands in his business and certainly not his love life. Maybe finding Dahlia was all coincidence.
“Does it matter what some figment of my imagination said in my dreams? I don’t even know if it is really her. I mean, I have only one picture, and it is very old. I could just be making it all up. It’s silly to think that we should listen to it.”
“It’s not silly at all. We just met Davey.”
“Yeah and see how that worked out? I think we should find the witches, stop the Stein coven, and just get out of here. I don’t want to drag anyone else into this. I wish I wouldn’t have gone to find Davey.”
“But then you wouldn’t have learned anything about your parents and about you when you were little.”
Justin just shook his head, disgusted at the whole situation. As much as he liked to believe that it was worth it, he couldn’t help but feel guilty and selfish for even thinking about it. It wasn’t like he had some big revelation that was going to change his life. It was more a gut-check that it was all real. A proverbial pinch as it were. Justin could have done without that if it would have meant that Davey wouldn’t have been killed.