Shifted (The Undari Trilogy Book 1)

by Sarah Reeves

  “Okay, spill,” demanded Hannah when they were out of earshot. “Why are you and your mom so messed up this morning?”

  Alex launched into the story, detailing the previous night’s conversation to her friends. “She knows something,” she finished. “I know she does. I just don’t get what’s so horrible that she can’t tell me.” She yawned widely. “I was up all night because I kept hearing noises, and I’m sure that’s what she was doing too, because why else would she look as horrible as I do?”

  “I don’t know, but it could have something to do with the fact that she’s hiding something? Guilt always makes me sleep worse,” Oliver said.

  “Yeah, but it doesn’t make sense. If she’s guilty about hiding something, she should just tell me instead of keeping it from me.”

  “Maybe,” interjected Hannah. “But I feel like if you were in any real danger, she would tell you more. Otherwise, it’s just putting you guys at risk.” But Alex was already shaking her head.

  “I don’t think so. She seemed pretty freaked out when I started describing that sigil to her.”

  “Well, today is about your sister,” replied Hannah, “so let’s get started on the decorations. Your mom said yesterday that the bouncy castle would be here by nine, so that gives us a couple hours to get as much as we can done.” This made Oliver and Alex both groan, but they followed Hannah out to the backyard, where the sunlight was just touching the top of the second story windows.

  For the next two hours, Alex mechanically hung streamers and blew up balloons. Try as she might, she couldn’t get the feeling of paranoia out of her mind, but she did her best to focus on her tasks, especially when Hannah started chucking presents at her to put on the tables. She still got hit in the head twice. When the bouncy castle arrived, Oliver, Hannah and Alex left the workers to set it up in the yard, and sat down at the present-laden table with cold drinks in their hands. After a moment, Alex’s mother joined them.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t say hi to you two,” she began, bending to hug both Hannah and Oliver. “I was a zombie this morning, but now I’ve had my coffee so hello, and thank you for coming.” She glanced at Alex, then away again. “Guests will be arriving soon, so I wanted to let you know to go ahead and go outside, so that you can tell people where to put presents and whatnot.”

  The trio went outside to sit, and while the conversation went on to lighter topics, Alex’s train of thought stayed where it was. Her mind wandered to the attic, where she knew there was a box of her father’s things. All of the things her mother couldn’t part with, at least. Maybe there was something there to find that would satisfy her need for information.

  The doorbell rang for the second time that morning, and after giving Alex a quick hug, Jennifer went to the door. Teagan’s birthday guests had started to arrive. Alex went to inform Hannah and Oliver, and they came inside to gather presents from the parents and set them on the already straining table while Alex ran upstairs to try and make herself look presentable. Soon, the backyard was filled with running, shouting seven-year-olds, which left the adults, Alex, Hannah, and Oliver to sit at the picnic tables and watch. After making sure Jennifer was distracted with another mother, Alex leaned in and quietly told her friends her plan to go into the attic. They immediately volunteered to go with her.

  “This is like a real life Sherlock episode!” Hannah whispered excitedly as they followed Alex upstairs. Oliver shushed her, and Hannah rolled her eyes. “Just saying.”

  The ladder to the attic was on a pull rope, and it creaked as it came down. Alex paused, peered down the stairs to make sure nobody had heard, then jerked her head toward the ladder. Oliver went first, then Hannah, and finally Alex came up behind them, pulling the ladder up after her. It was dim in the attic; the single lightbulb didn’t do much for the foreboding Alex was wrestling with.

  “So what are we looking for, anyway?” Oliver had his phone out, flashlight on, and was searching the piles of boxes that were stacked close to the walls. His back was hunched to keep his head from hitting the ceiling. “Is your dad’s stuff labelled?”

  “Yeah,” replied Alex. Hannah was off to her left, copying Oliver’s actions. “His name was Travis, so if you-” She broke off when the label caught her eye. “Found it.” The box was in the middle of a stack towards the back of the attic. Oliver got to it first, and carefully separated it from the rest of the boxes. The three circled around the box and knelt. Oliver looked across at Alex.

  “Are you sure about this?” He asked.

  “No,” said Alex. “This could prove that Mom is lying.”

  “But this could also have some valuable information in it.” Hannah put her hand on her best friend’s arm. “It could tell us everything.”

  Alex blew out her breath. “I know.” She reached forward, working at the tape. It took a second, and Alex almost took it as a sign to quit and just go back to the party. Her need for knowledge spurred her on, though, and she gave the tape a jerk, ripping it off the rest of the way. Fumbling slightly with the flaps, she opened the box.

  A stack of documents sat on top of the contents, and Oliver lifted them out when Alex hesitated. He began to leaf through them, head bent, brows furrowed. He finished glancing over the last page (there was roughly twenty pages, and Alex was shifting impatiently waiting on him to get done), and looked up at the other two. His face was grim, but he didn’t say a word as he handed the stack over to Alex.

  With shaking fingers, Alex took the documents. The looks on the faces of her friends did nothing to ease the feeling in her stomach. She looked down, and started to read the first page. It was a journal entry, written by her father.

  It’s been a few years since coming here. Jennifer has been wonderful with me so far. It’s not easy, with the sleepless nights. I’m kept awake by nightmares. They’re mostly of the night we were attacked. Alexandra shows no signs of remembering what happened, which is a relief. I can’t imagine what that would do to the mind of someone as young as her. What I’ve seen… nobody should see that. It’s enough to drive anyone insane.

  The Signs have stopped, just in time for Alexandra to start school. We weren’t sure if the prescription would work, but it has, which is another relief. Jennifer of course was more worried than me, but we’re happy with the timing nonetheless. Mother says it’s unnatural, but she also understands the benefits. It helps keep us in hiding, and the last thing I want is for the Unseen to find us again. That alone is justification enough for giving Alexandra the medication needed to stunt her growth in that area. And it worked. We’re acclimating well here.

  However much our lives are improving, I can’t help but be on alert at all times. I have to be, for the safety of my family. The Unseen is in prison, but there’s always a chance that he’ll escape. And when he does, he’ll come for us.

  Alex came to the end of the page and stopped. She didn’t look up, afraid of what she might see in the faces of her two best friends. Pity? Confusion? The only thing she felt was fury. Her chest was hot with it. Jennifer lied, Alex knew it, she knew there was more that her mom hadn’t told her. The Unseen? Was that the name of the cult? But if they were in prison… it didn’t matter.

  “Alex..?” Hannah started softly. Alex ignored her and started reading the rest of the papers, but jerked her head up when she heard footsteps below them.

  “That’s probably Mom,” she said in a whisper. “We need to rejoin the party.” She still didn’t make eye contact with Hannah or Oliver. They waited until the footsteps had faded back down the stairs before lowering the ladder to rejoin Teagan’s birthday. Alex kept the papers with her, and stashed them in her room before going back outside.

  The party was still in full swing, kids playing in the bounce house and sprinting back and forth across the lawn. Alex spotted her baby sister next to the little water feature to the right of the back deck, shouting excitedly as she showed the few kids gathered around her the frog she’d managed to catch. The sun was shining, there was a light br
eeze, and it did nothing to take away the anger coursing through Alex. It only got worse when she caught sight of her mom, chatting casually with a few of the other moms and dads. Alex gritted her teeth and went to sit down at the present table. Oliver and Hannah exchanged glances before joining her.

  “What did the page say?” Hannah asked.

  “It was a journal entry, from my dad,” answered Alex. “It talked about the Unseen, which is a he. Dad said that he would come for all of us if he ever got out of prison.”

  “So they really are going to be after you, then,” said Oliver in a hushed voice, his mouth set in a grim line. “The only question is, who is the Unseen? Is he the cult leader?”

  “It would make sense.” Alex knotted her fingers together. “Dad was a detective, and if he had anything to do with this guy going to prison, he’d want revenge.” She thought back to the day that the policemen had come to their door, the look in his eyes and the weight in her chest when they told her and her then pregnant mother that Travis had been killed in the line of duty. “The Unseen may be the one that killed my dad, in which case he’s already out of prison.”

  “It doesn’t make sense, he would have gotten his revenge when he killed your dad.” Hannah turned to Alex, an apology in her eyes. Her hand twisted a bracelet that she wore on her right wrist. It was one that Alex had given her for her birthday last year, and served as a nervous twitch for Hannah sometimes. “It wouldn’t make sense to come after you, too. They killed that man, but maybe he and your dad worked together.”

  “See, that’s what I don’t get,” replied Alex. “That man was like, a hundred years old. He had to be at least ninety if he worked with my dad, there’s no way he was fit to do that. Something’s not right.”

  “What are you going to do?” asked Oliver. “You can’t just call your mom out, she’d flip, and she wouldn’t say anything else about it.”

  “That doesn’t matter anymore if what my dad said is true. I’m going to go through the rest of those papers tonight, and talk to Mom about them. I’m not going to give her a chance to brush off the subject again.”

  Hannah and Oliver exchanged a glance. “If you say so, hun,” said Hannah, leaning forward and wrapping her arms around Alex. Alex laid her cheek against the top of her best friend’s head, and sighed. “Just be careful, okay?”

  Drawing back, Alex met her eyes and nodded. Loud and delighted screaming caught her attention, and she turned to watch as her mother rallied the children. It was time for presents.

  Teagan ripped through the presents, squealing as each emerged from its pretty pink and purple paper. There were dolls and stuffed animals, and lots of Tigger toys. Indulgent smiles were on every adult face as Teagan and her friends raced around, playing pretend with her gifts until the candles on the cake were lit. Alex and her mother took video with their phones as everyone sang to Teagan, and she blew out her seven little candles.

  Once the cake was eaten and the kids had rocketed through the resulting sugar rush, there was nothing more to do except let the parents take their exhausted children home. Alex, her mom, and her friends waved off the last few guests, then began to clean up the wreckage. Teagan was in the living room, sound asleep on the couch. Alex filled a bag with cups and icing covered paper plates, thinking about everything she’d read. Obviously there needed to be more information besides that to make it worth starting a fight with her mother over, but Alex couldn’t make sense of all the pieces there were at the moment. The murder, the cult, the symbol. The old man didn’t seem to fit into the narrative anywhere except as the victim. Was it possible he was just a random choice for the Unseen? No, Alex thought. There was no way, the fact that he’d been talking to her just before he was killed was no accident. At least it didn’t feel like one.

  And if it was a murderous cult, how had there not been any reported crimes before this? There was absolutely no mention of the Unseen or any cult killings until the day before. Alex shook her head. None of this was making any sense to her.

  Then there was the medication thing, and the ‘Signs’ she’d apparently been showing. Whatever those were.

  A voice startled her, and she came back to the present to realize she had overfilled her trash bag to the point where she had been putting the same piece of trash in the bag, but it kept falling out.

  “Alex?” The voice that had broken her train of thought was Oliver’s, and she turned to look at him, blinking. “You okay?” He asked. His eyes gave nothing away, which was the norm, but coupled with Alex’s rapidly disappearing thoughts it made her stomach roll uncomfortably. She nodded.

  “Yeah, sorry.” She began to tie the bag, and forced a laugh. “I didn’t realize I had zoned out until you said something.” Straightening, she brought the straps of the trash bag to her shoulder and began to walk to the dumpster. Oliver fell into step beside her after grabbing the extra piece of trash. “I swear, one of these days I’m gonna do that and get hit by a truck or something.”

  “You’re fine, trust me. I should’ve gotten that on video though, you were messing with that bit of trash for at least five minutes.”

  “Seriously?”

  “Yeah, seriously. Shit was hilarious.”

  “Thanks, asshole.”

  “Whatever I can do to help.”

  Alex smacked his shoulder with her free hand as they reached the dumpster. “Speaking of how you can help, I wanted to video chat with you and Hannah tonight, so that we can go over what we find. If there’s anything else about this Unseen, I want you guys to know too. If there’s any research that can be done then it’ll go faster if all of us are working on it.”

  “Working on what?” Jennifer was walking across the yard towards the two teens, carrying a trash bag of her own. “School project?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” replied Oliver quickly, saving Alex the trouble of answering. “It’s for science.”

  “Well that sounds like a good time. You and Hannah are welcome to stay the night, you can sleep in the basement like you used to when you were kids.” Jennifer patted Oliver’s cheek affectionately. “I”ll go pick you guys up some snacks, and you know where all the movies are.”

  Oliver looked over at Alex as Jennifer strolled around to the garage. “I guess that solves the whole video chat thing. Let’s go find Hannah and let her know the plan.” He grabbed Alex’s hand (she was about to follow her mother) and pulled her in the opposite direction. “Now’s not the time, Alex,” he said when they were out of earshot.

  “Then when would be a good time?” Alex asked angrily. “When it’s too late and the Unseen show up at our door? That’ll be interesting. ‘Oh hey mom. This is the guy you didn’t tell me about but don’t worry, I knew he’d be here just like you did. Hey Unseen guy, mind waiting outside while my mom tells me all about how you killed my dad?’”

  Oliver rolled his eyes, smiling slightly. “One, that’s completely lame. Two, there’s at least two statements that you don’t know for sure are true or not.” They entered the house to find Hannah helping Teagan put away all of her new toys. “Just calm down, let’s figure this out, gather some more information, and then we’ll take it to your mom. Yeah?”

  “...Yeah.” Alex grudgingly smiled as Oliver gave her a light shove towards her little sister. “Hey you,” she said, bending down. “Are all your presents put away?”

  “There had to be at least a hundred of them,” Hannah interjected, drawing a giggle from Teagan. “At least half of them are Tiggers.”

  “That’s ‘cause Tigger is the bestest!” said the young girl, bouncing in place. “I love him.”

  “Oh, I know you do,” Alex chuckled. “Here, I have to go and do a project with Oliver and Hannah for school, but lemme put on some cartoons for you to watch until Mom gets home. Sound good?” Alex settled the little girl on the couch with her favorite animated show and joined her friends in the basement.

  The basement was fully furnished, and Oliver was already setting up Alex’s laptop on the coffee table.
He was sitting on a couch that used to be in the living room, until Jennifer had gotten it into her head to renovate the upstairs. Hannah wasn’t with him yet.

  Oliver looked up. “I sent Hannah to grab the box of your dad’s things from the attic,” he said. “She’ll be here in a minute. I went ahead and laid out all of the documents we found, if you wanted to go ahead and start sorting through them. I’m researching different keywords that I saw here and there, but I doubt I’ll find anything. A lot of what I saw was pretty vague.”

  Alex sat next to him, reaching for the papers next to the laptop. “Well, hopefully whatever else is in the box will help us with that. I want as much information as I can have, in case I ask Mom and she decides not to say anything.”

  There was a clatter on the stairs, and Hannah appeared with the box in her arms. “You know,” she panted, setting the box on the floor next to the other two and collapsing into the chair next to them. “That box is heavier than I thought it would be. There better be some good stuff in here.”

  “There should be,” Alex glanced up from the papers in her hand. “Even if there’s nothing else on the Unseen, there are still a good few questions I want answers to.”

  Oliver turned his head to look at her, still typing. Show off. “You mean the Signs, and the medication.”

  “The what now?” Hannah interjected. Oliver filled her in on what the journal entry had said, while Alex started reading once more. The more she read though, the more confused she got. Words and phrases jumped out at her. ‘Royals’, ‘serial killer’, and ‘war of the Realms’ showed up the most. There were drawings too, symbols that meant absolutely nothing to her. She was pretty sure there were words from another language, like ‘Vin’, ‘Zephere’, and ‘Asgoth’. Alex’s mind was whirling when she got to the end of the last page. Oliver would occasionally take a page that Alex had finished with, bring it over to his side of the table, and start transcribing the writing into the laptop.