Chapter 10: Dead Man
“Good morning,” George greeted us as he answered the door.
“Good morning,” Annabelle and I answered back.
“Come in, come in,” he said, as he moved back so we could walk through the door. “This is my wife, Elizabeth, and my daughter, Lily,” he pointed to the two women sitting at the table. Lily was the girl who opened the door last night. She appeared much older now that I could get a better look, I’d say she was at least fifteen.
“Would you like something to eat?” Elizabeth asked.
“Yes, thank you,” Dante answered.
They were all normal-looking for living in the middle of the woods. George looked like a giant compared to his small wife. His hair was long, dark and curly. His wife’s hair was straight, shoulder length, and platinum blonde; their daughter was a spitting image of her.
“Sit,” Lily insisted her smile made her blue eyes glow. We all did, and Elizabeth brought us each a bowl of oatmeal. When we finished eating, they led us to the living room.
“Have a seat,” George insisted. We all sat together on the couch; lily was told to go upstairs. George and Elizabeth sat in the chairs across from us.
“So…” George said as he sat his coffee mug down, “…I talked to Dante earlier he told me most of the story. I understand a little better, but I still don’t understand why the Alliance is after you,” he said in a kind voice.
“Who’s Dante?” Annabelle blurted, confused. He turned towards her. “Whoa your eyes—”
“I’m Dante, but I pretended to be Skylar, so that I could help Scarlett.”
“Well, I think we might be able to—” George kept talking, but it got quieter and quieter as I stared at the corner of the room. Grace stood there for a moment. Then, she came closer.
“You need to come find me,” she pleaded. “I’m running out of time. They’re deliberating tomorrow night on what to do with me. I don’t see them keeping me around much longer.”
“I don’t know where you are, Grace.”
“Go to the place you last saw me, you’ll find answers there.”
“How do you know?” I whispered.
“The answers are there, but you need to be careful; I think they want you to find me.”
“They want me to find you?” I asked, but before she could say anything else she was gone.
“Where did she go?” I heard them chattering, once I could pay attention to anything else. They must have seen her too. I looked down, and I was invisible again.
“I’m here,” I sighed, not looking forward to becoming visible and all the pain that came with it.
“Did you see Grace again?” Dante asked.
“Yes, did you see her?” I wondered.
“I didn’t see her… did anyone else see her?”
“No,” they all answered.
“I’ve seen this before, only once,” George looked around the room. “Elizabeth’s sister, Violet—” I noticed Elizabeth looking at George, there was something in her eyes I couldn’t quite place.
“Violet?” I interrupted, noticing the similarity to my name.
“Yes, Violet, she can see the dead. She had a daughter who died, but she never saw her, and it drove her mad. She recovered, but her power has never been easy for her.”
“What?” I gasped. “Grace isn’t dead she told me so herself.”
“Sometimes, if you’re very close to death, your spirit can detach from your body for short periods of time.”
“How do you know if you’ve only seen it once before?” I wondered.
“Violet wanted to know everything about the powers she possessed, she told me.”
“We need to get to Grace, she told me to go where I last saw her, she said I would find answers there. Do we even have time for that?”
“Alright, here’s what we can do,” George began. “Elizabeth or I can go with you. One of us has to stay, because our son is coming home today.”
“I’ll go,” Elizabeth offered with a glimmer in her eyes.
“Thank you,” I said.
“Would you like Lily to tag along? She could be of some help. She’s young, but she discovered her powers at a very young age.”
“Of course, if she wants to,” I answered.
“I’ll be right back. We should leave soon,” Elizabeth said as she rushed from the room, George followed her.
“You don’t think—” I heard Elizabeth whisper.
“Shh,” George hushed and started talking so low I couldn’t hear.
I felt the tingling pain starting in my foot, soon it was excruciating, and piece by piece I appeared.
I lay on the couch squirming in between Dante and Annabelle, all they could do was watch in horror as the pieces of me came back together. I wondered why it didn’t hurt when I disappeared, only when I reappeared. I took a deep breath and laid there while the pin pricks began, soon after I was good as new.
“Are you okay?” Annabelle asked.
“Yeah, I just don’t understand it.”
“Well being able to disappear is a pretty cool power, even if it hurts.”
When Elizabeth and Lily came back, they each had two suitcases.
“What’s all this?” Dante asked.
“Oh,” Elizabeth said. “Well, no offense, but it’s kind of obvious that you guys didn’t bring much so I figured—”
“We brought you guys some clothes,” Lily interrupted. “We brought some for us too, of course.”
I looked down. It was pretty obvious that we didn’t have a change of clothes, if we did, we wouldn’t be walking around looking like we did. I was covered in dirt, and blood, though the blood wasn't noticeable against my black shirt.
“And we figured we would bring our own car, more room and if one was to break down or something we would have a spare,” Elizabeth announced.
“Okay, let’s go,” Dante got up and shook George’s hand.
“You come back whenever you need,” He said to Dante. “Same to you guys.”
We started walking back to the car, but Elizabeth, and Lily didn’t follow.
“Hey,” Elizabeth called. “Don’t you want a ride?” She ran behind the house.
A couple of minutes later she pulled around in a blue Hummer. We got in and anticipated seeing how she would maneuver around the trees. It wasn’t an easy task, but swerving left to right, somehow she made it out, and drove us over to where we parked the car.
“Thanks,” Dante said.
“I’ll follow you guys,” Elizabeth said. As we were walking away, Annabelle stopped.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, noticing her reluctance.
“One second,” she ran back to the Hummer. “I’m going to ride with them, okay?” She called over after a minute.
“Okay?” I said, feeling offended. Were we not good enough for her anymore? Now that she had another option.
We got in the car and headed to our old home town. We needed to go to Alexis’s house to see what we could find. I prayed we would find an answer. Grace depended on it.
“So…” he said, “…about last night,”
“What about it?”
“I just, I kind of expected…” he sighed, “… I expected things to be different, when you found out who I was, after everything you said—”
“I don’t know what you mean, but everything I said is the problem.”
“I know, I should have said something then, but I liked hearing it,” he smiled.
“Fine, I forgive you, but mark my words Dante. I will get you back,” I joked, but I was serious. I could get him back even worse, what with my newfound power—or whatever it was—to vanish, I just needed to get it under control.
“I wouldn’t have it any other way,” he shook his head while he laughed.
When we reached the neighborhood, I was shaking. Nothing was coming to me, how was I supposed to know the last place I saw Grace? I didn’t remember. He pulled up to the woods about twenty-five feet from Alexis’s house. I ju
mped out of the car before he put it in park.
“What’s the matter?” Annabelle asked, as she got out of the hummer.
“Nothing, we just need to find whatever it is Grace wanted me to find.”
“She didn’t say where it was?” she asked, as she put her hand on my shoulder.
“The last time I remember seeing her was in the house, in the bedroom, but I don’t know, and I need to find out soon, otherwise… she really will be gone, all over again.”
“Let’s go,” she said as she grabbed my hand. We sprinted across the front lawn over to a window on the side of the house. She peeked in. “I don’t see anyone, but just in case…” she pulled a small handgun out of her sweatshirt.
“Wha—what are you doing Annabelle?” I demanded. “Are you insane? Where did you even get that?”
“I’m sorry, but I need to help my parents, and now that I know you better it’s almost as important to me that we find your friend, too.”
“I don’t think we need a gun—”
“Hey, what the hell are you doing on my property?” A man yelled, then I heard a deafening bang. My eyes closed; it was instinct. Even though it was over, I couldn’t bring myself to open them.
“Annabelle?” I said, my eyes still shut tight.
“Yeah?” she said, breathless.
“Did you just shoot him?”
“Yes.” Her voice trembled with regret.
I had to ask, “is he dead?”
“I think so,” she whimpered.