Lucy’s face was shifting a scary shade of purple. And still she screamed. Wyatt didn’t dare move. In the moment, he held a respectable fear of both Lucy and Ms. Abagail. I’ll just let them work this out, he thought. He couldn’t force himself to leave the spot he was rooted to, however.
“Lucy!” Ms. Abagail shouted, reaching a hand toward Lucy.
As Ms. Abagail’s hand touched Lucy’s arm, the shrieking immediately ended.
“Oh, good, you found the off switch,” Wyatt said, wiggling a finger in his ear. “I was about to—”
Just as Lucy’s scream had suddenly stopped, so did Wyatt’s ability to think. There was something glowing from the center of Lucy’s chest. A small orb of bright green rose from beneath Lucy’s stained shirt and lazily floated in the air between him and Ms. Abagail.
Lucy’s eyes narrowed on Ms. Abagail and she let out a low growl before pouncing on the stunned woman. Wyatt snapped into action at the same time, moving to intercede. Lucy drove Ms. Abagail back and into Wyatt mid-charge. A violently green light flashed and Wyatt knew at once that when he forced his eyes open again, he would not see a disheveled eating area in the mountain fortress of Sanctuary.
Chapter Six
WYATT ROSE TO his knees, spitting grass and rubbing his temples. “Well, that was real great, Lucy. Nice going.”
Lucy was sitting cross-legged next to him, and Ms. Abagail was sprawled on the ground on her other side. Wyatt stared at Lucy for a moment, received no response, and stood to survey their new surroundings.
“Oh, wonderful,” he said. “Looks like you sent us back to Earth.”
A dirt road passed along the top of the bank that Wyatt stood at the bottom of. He could see utility poles and a mailbox. Enough to tell him he wasn’t in the Realms any longer. And when he turned, he saw, at the end of a long driveway, a solitary house. It was small and plain, and most certainly of earthly construction.
“Why did you do that, Lucy?” Wyatt asked haughtily, turning back to his sister.
Lucy turned and looked up at him, smiling ear to ear. “Oh, hi, Dumb-name,” she said cheerily.
Wyatt smacked himself in the forehead. “Even better. This is just plain fantastic.”
“Dumb-name?”
Wyatt sighed. “Hey, Julia.”
Ms. Abagail stirred and sat up. She squinted at Wyatt, looking dazed. “What happened?”
Wyatt rolled his eyes. “I’d say ask Lucy, but it seems she didn’t make the journey with us.”
Ms. Abagail frowned. “What are you talking about?”
Julia spun around to face Ms. Abagail. She stuck out a hand. “Hi! You must be Ms. Abagail. Dumb-name and Lucy have told me so much about you. You seem really nice and oh so pretty. Maybe you’d like to be in our club? Can you keep a secret?”
“Not the time,” Wyatt said sharply.
Ms. Abagail looked back at Wyatt. “Seriously, what’s going on? Did we, like, fall through the floor again? And what’s wrong with Lucy?”
“Lucy’s gone,” Wyatt said.
Julia nodded vigorously.
“This,” Wyatt said, nodding at the grinning girl, “is Julia. Seems I didn’t send her away like Lucy accused me of doing. Guess I didn’t break everything after all.”
Julia shook her head, sending her hair slapping about her face. “Oh, no. I’ve just been hiding. Lucy wanted time to get to know her new brother.”
“But you’re back now,” Wyatt said.
“Oh yes,” Julia chirped. “You said some really mean things to Lucy, Dumb-name, and she needs some time to cool off. She gets like that sometimes. Nasty and such. Mrs. Devereux says she’s more beast than girl.”
Ms. Abagail stood and approached Wyatt. “What did you do?” she hissed.
“I didn’t do—I didn’t mean to. We, well, we sort of got into a little argument. Lucy got mad, as you saw, and well, seems it activated whatever power she has. And sent us here.”
“What power?”
Wyatt glanced at Julia. She had a handful of grass and was picking single blades to add to it, humming as she did. “I don’t know. Far as I know, she’s never actually been to the Realms. But obviously, she can take us between worlds like I could. Oh, and we somehow shared a dream last night. Or a memory. I don’t really know what it was, but it was weird. I saw—”
“Forget that for now,” Ms. Abagail said. “Where are we and what do we do now?”
Wyatt looked around. “No idea. I don’t recognize any of this, though we’re definitely back on Earth. Maybe Lucy—er, Julia—knows. Or we could just ask whoever lives there.” He pointed past Ms. Abagail at the small house.
Ms. Abagail turned.
“I don’t think Julia will be much help, but maybe we can, I don’t know, coax Lucy back out. I don’t actually know how it works. But first, let’s find out where we are.” Wyatt walked toward to the house, feeling confident despite the strange situation. Of the three, he thought himself most capable of handling such a problem. “We’ll just have to play it cool and not mention how we got here. Obviously. And—” Wyatt stopped, noticing he was walking alone.
Turning back, he saw Julia still picking at the grass and Ms. Abagail frozen in place. Wyatt threw up his hands and walked back to them. “We can’t just stand around. We need to find out where we are and somehow get back to—”
Ms. Abagail stood still as a statue, eyes wide and unblinking. Her fingers twitched at her side and carried a tremor all the way up to her shoulders.
“Uh, Ms. Abagail?” Wyatt asked, waving a hand in front of her face. “You all right?”
Ms. Abagail’s mouth moved, but no words came out. Wyatt reached out a hand and touched her arm. She jumped like he’d shocked her.
“Sorry,” Wyatt said. “You okay?”
Ms. Abagail abruptly turned and starting walking toward the road.
“Ms. Abagail?” Wyatt called out.
She made no indication of hearing him and didn’t slow down.
Wyatt ran to Julia and yanked her up by the arm. “Come on, Julia, something’s wrong with Ms. Abagail.”
Julia dropped her fistful of grass. “Oh no. Well, let’s save her, then.”
Wyatt smiled. “I was hoping you’d say that. Come on, let’s go.”
Reunited, Greenwood Hospital’s secret club raced after the young woman with the pink stripe in her hair. They caught up with her just as she reached the edge of the road. She stopped walking, coming to a halt next to the mailbox.
“Hey, what’s going on?” Wyatt asked. He leaned in front of her and saw that Ms. Abagail was silently crying.
“Oh, you’re sad,” Julia said, her normally cheery voice subdued.
“What…how...” Ms. Abagail said haltingly. The shaking in her fingers had grown.
“How what?” Wyatt asked. “You look like you’ve seen a—wait, do you know where we are?”
Ms. Abagail covered her mouth with a hand and turned away from him. As she did, Wyatt saw the name painted on the side of the mailbox. Miller.
“This is your house?” Wyatt asked, knowing full well the answer.
“Oh, that’s good, right?” Julia asked. “We’re not lost. Good, I hate being lost.”
“We need…we have to get out of here,” Ms. Abagail said.
“Well, yeah, that’s the idea, but if this is—”
Ms. Abagail whirled on Wyatt. “Now! We need to leave now. I don’t care how we got here—you need to get me out of here now.”
Wyatt was taken aback. “I…uh, well, I can’t. Only Lucy can, I think.”
Ms. Abagail looked at Julia and started sobbing, again covering her mouth and turning back toward the road.
Wyatt drew closer to her, standing at her elbow. “Ms. Abagail…”
“I can’t be here,” she said, words muffled by her tears and hands. “I have to go.”
A sound like a single thunderclap rang out behind them. “Abagail Maegan Miller!” a female voice shouted, the name echoing off the distant hills. “Yo
u get in here, this instant!”
Wyatt looked back at the house to see a woman standing in front of the open front door. At the distance, it was difficult to see her clearly, but her voice sent chills up Wyatt’s spine.
“Oh my God,” Ms. Abagail said from Wyatt’s side. She’d turned as well, looking at the woman. “This can’t be happening. This can’t be real.”
“I said get in here!” the woman shouted again. “If I have to come and get you, there will be hell to pay! As God is my witness, there will be hell to pay, Abagail!”
“Uh, Ms. Abagail, is that…” Wyatt said.
Ms. Abagail’s eyes were darting back and forth between the woman and the dirt road. Then she whirled on Julia, who seemed preoccupied with the clouds, only jerking back to attention when Ms. Abagail grabbed her by the shoulders. “Lucy, you need to get us out of here. Now.”
“Uh…” Wyatt began to say.
Julia scrunched up her face in the way she often did. “I’ll ask her when she gets back, if you want. She’s still pouting.”
Ms. Abagail stared at the girl for a long moment and Wyatt wondered if she would strike her, shake her, or just scream. It looked like she might do all three. Instead, she let go of Julia’s shoulders and let her arms fall limp. She glanced briefly at Wyatt, seeming a shell of her former self, then turned and trudged toward the house.
Wyatt bolted to her side. “Hey, I don’t know what’s going on here, but I don’t think we should go to her.”
“We have to,” Ms. Abagail said, still walking. Her shoulders were slumped and her arms listless at her sides.
Wyatt surged ahead to block her path, holding up his hands. “No, we don’t. I’m beginning to think Lucy’s power can do more than just take us between worlds. She said she dreams places, but I think this is actually a memory or something. Yours. And if—”
Something pulled sharply on Wyatt’s ear, breaking off his concentration and forcing him to spin around. The woman from the house had him by the ear. She was wiry, but dragged him along with inhuman strength. Wyatt grabbed the woman’s arm and tried to extricate himself, but found her far stronger than him.
“Hey, let go!” Wyatt protested. He tried digging in his heels and holding his ground, but the woman gave a sharp tug and forced him to walk again lest he fall.
“You’re lucky I don’t paint your backside red for what you’ve done,” the woman said.
“Ms. Abagail,” Wyatt pleaded, looking at his protector.
She walked at his side, utterly dejected. “Don’t fight,” she said softly. “It will only make it worse.”
“Julia!” he yelled instead, trying to locate her. They had nearly reached the house. The open front door loomed like a dragon’s mouth, ready to swallow them should they draw too near, and fit to burn them alive if they attempted to flee.
“Yeah, Dumb-name?” Julia asked from the side of Wyatt opposite Ms. Abagail.
He couldn’t turn to see her, but was thankful she was at least following. He couldn’t lose her. “Help a guy out?” he asked.
“Oh, I don’t know, Dumb-name,” she responded. “She reminds me of Mrs. Devereux and you never fight Mrs. Devereux. Unless you want a good spanking. You should know that.”
The woman dragged Wyatt into the dimly lit house, muttering under her breath as she went. Ms. Abagail shuffled close at hand, while Julia hummed as she brought up the rear. Wyatt had trouble discerning any detail of the house as the woman continued to lead him onward. By the time his eyes adjusted, he was released with a sharp push that sent him sprawling to a carpeted floor.
He immediately spun and rolled into a crouch, fists clenched. “All right, let’s do this,” he shouted, ready to fight.
“It’s no use,” Ms. Abagail said. She crossed the cramped bedroom they were in and sat on a small bed.
The audible sound of a padlock being fastened sounded from the other side of the closed door. He surged at it and set to pounding it with his fists.
“I don’t think you can break it,” Julia said from his side.
Wyatt turned on her. “You know, I really wish my sister was here and not you.”
Julia’s cheerful mask broke and crumbled into a pout. She crossed her arms and stomped to the bed. She sat next to Ms. Abagail and said, “You don’t need to be so mean, Jerk-face.”
“Oh, great,” Wyatt retorted. “A new name.”
“If you’re not quiet, we won’t get dinner,” Ms. Abagail said.
“What is this?” Wyatt asked. “Was that your mom? Is this your house?”
Ms. Abagail moved further onto the bed, braced her back against the wall, and brought her knees to her chest. She nodded.
Wyatt leaned against the door and ran his hands through his hair. “This isn’t good.”
“Why did you do this?” Ms. Abagail asked.
Wyatt looked at her incredulously. “I didn’t do anything. It was Lucy.”
“This can’t be happening,” Ms. Abagail said. She looked like she was just a short step from going comatose.
“I think…I think maybe Lucy’s power isn’t quite the same as mine,” Wyatt said.
Ms. Abagail looked at him, but didn’t say anything.
“I think…well, I could cross between worlds, which obviously she can do too, but I think she can also cross into—this is going to sound crazy—but memories. We sort of did it last night, I think. I thought it was a dream, then it felt like a memory and that made sense at the time, but then we woke up and I thought it really was just a dream. I haven’t had a chance to ask Lucy about it, though.”
“You were here last night?” Ms. Abagail asked.
Wyatt shook his head. “No, we were…in one of Athena’s memories. I think. And we were younger, too, but not now.”
Ms. Abagail just stared.
“I know, I know,” Wyatt said as he began to pace in front of the bed. “Well, we had thought that memories played some part in the Realms. I mean, after all, Lucy said herself that she sent her own memories there, both good and bad, but I thought it was just her memories. And maybe mine. But now…”
“It’s mine, too…” Ms. Abagail said airily.
“And Athena’s,” Wyatt added. “Oh, this isn’t good. That totally messes up what we thought about, well, fixing things, or whatever. If it’s not just Lucy’s and my memories…”
“Oh God,” Ms. Abagail said.
Wyatt stopped pacing. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I think we’re all a part of this world now. And I’m beginning to think I was wrong about Lucy being the Mother, too. Don’t think she made the world. And whatever power she has, she either can’t control it yet, or it’s changing, or—”
“We need to get out,” Ms. Abagail said.
“Well, this is your memory. Any ideas?”
Ms. Abagail wiped the tears from her face and took a deep breath. She looked around the room and fresh tears broke down her cheeks. She stifled a sob and shook her head.
Wyatt felt his chest tighten at seeing Ms. Abagail in such a state. He turned away and steeled himself. He didn’t have his Druid power anymore, but he could still help set things right. He could still be the leader he had failed at being before. He walked to the only window in the room and looked out into the yard and the dirt road that seemed miles away now. He tried to open the window but it didn’t yield.
“It’s nailed shut,” Ms. Abagail said.
“We can break the glass,” Wyatt said, looking for something to do it with.
“You can try,” Ms. Abagail said, her tone suggesting the likely outcome.
Wyatt turned in a tight circle. The only thing in the room was the bed and simple dresser. He had been so flabbergasted on first arrival that he had failed to notice the complete state of the tiny room.
“It’s like the Shepherd’s Crook,” he said. “A prison cell.”
“That’s the point,” Ms. Abagail said.
He looked at her and felt his heart break again. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean…”
<
br /> “It’s okay,” she said. “It’s just so…I mean, I haven’t…I still can’t believe this is real. It feels just like it did then.”
Wyatt couldn’t begin to understand what the memory meant to Ms. Abagail, and he wasn’t about to pry. Instead, he approached the bed and sat next to her. “Well, you’re not alone this time. You got me and Lu—Julia,” he said.
Ms. Abagail smiled for a fraction of a second before the mask of pain slid back into place. Julia scooted up against Ms. Abagail and patted her leg. “Don’t you worry, Ms. Abagail, me and Dumb-name-jerk-face are good at saving things. Aren’t we?” Julia looked at Wyatt, her mischievous grin back on her face.
Wyatt nodded firmly. “Yep. Though I don’t suppose you have a keycard that can get through that door, huh?”
“Don’t be dumb,” Julia chided. “It’s not that kind of door.”
“I was just—never mind. Julia, we really need to find a way out of here and back to Sanctuary. And to do that, we need Lucy’s help. Unless you can use her magic amulet.”
Julia frowned. “Oh, she doesn’t even let me play with it. Said it’s too dangerous. Makes people remember things. Bad things.”
“Oh God,” Ms. Abagail moaned.
“I wish one of you would have bothered to say that before, but whatever. Julia, can you get Lucy here?” Wyatt said, fighting to keep his emotions in check. He felt twitchy, on the verge of jumping out of his skin.
“Maybe. But she’s really good at hiding.”
“Well, try,” Wyatt said.
Julia shrugged and bounced off the bed. “Okey-dokey.”
Wyatt turned his attention back to Ms. Abagail. She was staring straight ahead, eyes glazed over. “Ms. Abagail?”
She twitched and looked at him.
“It’s none of my business,” he said. “But this is your memory. Maybe you can help somehow. What did…when this…” Wyatt felt the words jumble together in his head. He felt out of place, like an intruder. I shouldn’t be here, he thought, not in something so personal. He forced a cough. “What did you do to get through…well, this.” Wyatt waved his arms at the room as if to further illustrate his clumsy point.
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