Chapter 8: Secrecy
“This doesn’t make any sense.” He said to himself, while he walked in circles. I just sat back and watched more confused than ever. I noted while he was having his fit that he had a few drastic differences from Dante. The first difference was this erratic behavior. Another, he seemed so stressed out. Dante was carefree; he only worried if something was going on with someone he loved. “Wait,” he blurted out. “How didn’t I see this before? The Alliance, they must’ve had something to do with this.”
“What?” I questioned. He turned around to look at me. It seemed as though he forgot I was there.
“The Alliance is a group of people, who are against those who have powers telling people who don’t.”
“You think—” I began, for the first time I had hope, “you think they have her?”
“Scarlett, that is nothing to be relieved about,” his tone turned darker. “They will kill anyone who knows the secret that doesn’t need to, sometimes even those who tell.”
“How would they know I told her?”
“They have their ways, an anonymous tip. In cases like that or similar cases, they abduct the person in question. They question them and sometimes they torture them.”
“How would they get an anonymous tip?”
“Were not the only ones with powers,” he paused to think. “Where did you tell her and what did you say? That might be the most important thing of all.”
“I pulled her aside at school. We went in the bathroom to talk.” I recalled that memory like it was yesterday. "I tried to sugarcoat it. She wasn’t listening, so I just came out and told her she died in the dream. I also told her that I’ve had dreams before that had come true.”
“Was there anyone else in the bathroom?” He asked. I thought back and remembered her storming out; I stood there for a moment, hurt, and a little angry. I was just trying to help. The door opened, and I went into a stall. The girl walked in and right back out. Then I left the bathroom and stood by my locker across the hall. Less than a minute later, a girl walked out of the bathroom. Then I didn’t pay much attention, but now, it seemed, even if I didn’t actually kill Grace, I still might have had a part in her demise. “Well, was there?”
“Yeah, her name was…” I thought for a moment. “…her name was Alexa.” Then I remembered something else. “I think the party that night was at her house.”
“Oh no.”
“What, you don’t think—”
“I don’t know,” he said, staring off at nothing in particular.
“Okay, let’s forget about it tonight, what about Annabelle?” I asked.
“Well for starters, we need to find out what was in that note,” he said as he grabbed my hand helping me up. We walked to the car and opened the door. Annabelle was fast asleep in the back.
“Well I guess we’re not going to find out tonight,” I sighed.
“Yeah, I guess not.” He reached into the back seat and grabbed a bag. “Are you hungry? I stopped at a store while you were sleeping.” He took some chips and energy drinks out of the bag.
“Nutritious,” I laughed while grabbing a can.
“Let’s go sit outside so we don’t wake her up.” He grabbed another bag from the back and took it with him. We sat just off the shore. He took a blanket out of the bag and laid it down. “Sit,” he said as he grabbed another blanket from the bag.
“What if Annabelle has powers? What if the Alliance took Annabelle’s family?” I asked out of nowhere.
“That doesn’t really make sense; powers get passed down so if she had them, her parents would, too.”
“Wait. So, my mom has powers?”
“Yes. I don’t know what though.” He turned his head and whispered, “but I have an idea.”
“What?”
“You have good hearing don’t you?” He laughed. “If I told you, it might change the way you feel about her. I could be wrong but I have quite a few theories, not just about her powers.”
“You know, you don’t have to say everything aloud. I want to know.”
“I think she might have the power to make…” he sighed, “…to make people forget.”
“You’re saying she’s the reason I don’t remember? I don’t understand why my mom would do that to me.”
“It’s just a theory.”
“Well why do you think that?”
“Let’s just forget about it.”
“Fine, but what do you think we should do about Annabelle? Why doesn’t she just call the police?”
“That’s what I was thinking. I figured we could drop her off at the nearest police station tomorrow.”
“Maybe, I just have this feeling, like she was meant to find us.”
“Okay, then what do you think we should do?”
“I—I don’t know,” I stuttered.
“We’ll see what happens tomorrow.”
We fell asleep on the blanket outside. I didn’t dream, just slept in peace. When I woke up, Annabelle was walking along the shore; I got up to join her.
“Morning,” I said as I walked up.
“Oh, good morning.”
“So, do you have any idea, anything at all, about what happened?”
“Well, some weird things started happening.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“I don’t know if I should say, my parents found out and now, they’re gone.”
“So do you know for sure that had anything to do with—“
“That’s what the note said, for the most part.”
“I need to know so we can help you… we’re looking for someone too, so we can’t waste any time. Skylar said he would drop you off at the police station. I think they might be able to help you more than us.”
“Watch out!” She screamed, pushing me aside as she put her hands up in front of her. I turned around, a man wearing all black flew across the beach.
“What was that?”
“Oh no, I should go. Thank you for everything, really,” she backed away. “You guys should leave too.”
“You have powers.”
“What?” She stopped walking.
“I saw what you just did; I have them too, just nothing that I can show you.”
“The note said that they took my parents, that I shouldn’t look for them, and if anyone else sees my powers, well, they didn’t say what would happen, but I’m sure it wouldn’t be good.”
“Who’s they?”
“The Alliance.”
“So you knew who had them?”
“Yes, but I couldn’t tell you, I didn’t know you were one of us. You wouldn’t have known who the Alliance is anyway.”
“So then how did you think we could help you if you didn’t tell us about this?”
“There’s a small neighborhood just a few miles from here. Not very noticeable and if you saw it, you would just think it was a regular neighborhood. A group of them live there that’s where I was going to start, if I needed more help, I would just have to find someone else.”
“Why would they have taken your parents though? And how do you know all this?”
“That I still don’t know. My neighbor, he saw what I can do, he never met anyone who was like him before, I mean his family, but besides that, I guess his family decided to move away from the others that they knew had powers. His parents taught him a lot, about his powers, and the Alliance.”
“So do you have any other powers?” I asked, intrigued.
“No, that’s it. What are your powers anyway?”
“I have dreams of the future, and other dreams. Yesterday, I had a dream about all these people who looked like, zombies kind of. One of them cut my arm, when I woke up… I was bleeding.” I lifted my sleeve to show her the gash.
“Oh my god,” she gasped.
“So now that I know, I think we can help you, but…” I said in a serious tone. “After we go to the neighborhood were going to have to go find out what happened to Grace, so it’s your choice if you want to stick
around.”
“Yes. Yes. Yes. Thank you,” she cried. She grabbed me and pulled me over to her crushing me as she hugged me.
“No problem. Do you know what time it is?” I asked. She rolled up her sleeve to look at her sparkling diamond watch.
“Seven,” she replied.
“Okay we should let him sleep a little longer, then we’ll get going.”
We took our shoes off and walked over to the long wooden dock. We sat there dipping our feet in the water.
“So, is he your boyfriend or something?”
“Or something,” I laughed. “I just got out of a—for lack of a better word— mental hospital. When I got home, well, to my new home, he and his father were living there.”
“Oh I see, so he’s fair game?” She raised one eyebrow and looked over at me. I didn’t know what to say, I sure couldn’t go with my gut reaction, but everything after that was almost worse. He wasn’t mine, I didn’t own him. I didn’t love him, but who knows someday if he’s anywhere near the person Dante was, I could. “I’m joking,” she laughed. “I can see that you’re into him.”
“What makes you think that?” I laughed. I was trying to act as relaxed as I could, but I could feel my cheeks getting redder by the minute.
“Honey, I see the way you look at him,” she drawled. “And the way he looks at you.”
“I just met him two days ago, that’s crazy.”
“I would swear you’d known each other a long time. Hmm, I guess that’s the one time I’ve been wrong about something like this.” She said, looking at the lake, then back at me. “Or you guys met in like a previous life or something ‘cause I swear—”
“Hey, what are you guys doing?” I jumped and looked back at Annabelle, who just smiled.
“We were waiting for you to get up,” I answered.
“Alright, let’s get going,” he said as he helped us both up.
Annabelle wasn’t as sure as she sounded before, about where the neighborhood was, but somehow we found it. She was right about one thing, however, it did blend in. I would have never known what horrible things took place there, I still didn’t know for sure, but I had an idea.
“I’ll be back in a few,” she said, climbing out of the car.
“Wait,” I said before she could shut the door. “Maybe we should go with her,” I whispered to Skylar.
“Yeah, for all we know Grace could be in there,” he whispered back.
“What?” she asked.
“We think we should go with you,” he answered.
“I don’t know. It could get pretty ugly.”
“We don’t care. You shouldn’t have to do this alone, what if you need help?” I said.
“Okay, here’s the plan, there should be a clubhouse or something in the back somewhere, that’s where they keep them. It’s not going to be easy though, we’re going to have to get back there undetected or—”
“Or we’ll be in that clubhouse,” Skylar said, a little on edge.
“If we’re lucky,” She smiled to cover her fear.
“Okay, so do we stay together or split up?” I asked.
“Together,” Skylar answered quicker than I expected, but I agreed. “Worst-case scenario I get us out of there, if I can.”
“What do you mean if you can?” I asked. “I’ve seen you do it.”
“You’re the first person I’ve tried with. It worked, but I don’t know how well it would work with three people.”
“So then you leave me behind,” Annabelle said without hesitation.
It was a small gated neighborhood, there were twenty houses at the most, and what looked like a small apartment complex. That’s all I could see from the top of the fence. Annabelle jumped down without hesitation, Skylar climbed up after her, he made it look so easy, but I wasn't about to believe it was. Being afraid of heights, I just looked down—fifteen feet, not to mention the barbed wire they avoided with ease.
“C’mon Scarlett,” Annabelle urged.
“I can’t,” I cried.
“You can do it. I’ll catch you, I promise,” Skylar assured me.
“Hurry, I think I hear someone coming.” Annabelle started getting nervous.
I closed my eyes and jumped. Skylar caught me just before my feet hit the ground. Then he grabbed my hand and ran behind some trees in a backyard. The trees followed along the fence in a thin line; the other side of the fence was covered in woods. This made it easier to sneak to the back, but if anyone was looking for us, it wouldn’t be enough. It didn't take us too long to make it to the back.
We were behind a huge building made of red bricks. It looked nice enough from the outside, but I was horrified to see what awful things were contained within. I held my breath as we raced over to the back door. I was afraid it would be locked, or worse, connected to an alarm. To my surprise, neither, we got right in. Just inside was a staircase heading downstairs. When we reached the bottom, a horrible stench filled my nose. I would have sworn we were inside a prison; people were locked in cages, starving and dirty. At first, they looked afraid, then they realized we weren’t their captors.
“Help,” they started screaming. “Please let us out.”
“Shh. You’re going to get us locked in here too,” I whispered.
“Do you see your parents?” Skylar asked. Annabelle ran to each cell grabbing the bars.
“No,” she sighed.
“Grace isn’t here either.” Though I couldn’t be certain, any of the piles of bones lying in the cages could have been her, but I couldn’t even think about that.
“We have to get out of here,” Skylar whispered.
“We’ll come back for you; I promise.” They all ran to the bars and started shaking them.
“Get back here!” they screamed. “You can’t just leave us.”
“Shh,” I walked closer to them. “There is nothing we can do for you now. We don’t know where the keys are. If you want us to come back and help you, I suggest you shut up.”
“Come on, let’s go,” Skylar said while grabbing my hand and reaching for Annabelle‘s. This time the tunnel was less bright, and we seemed to be in it a lot longer. When we got out, I realized that Annabelle wasn’t with us. “Oh no,” Skylar said as he closed his eyes.
“Why didn’t she come with us?” I asked, and his eyes shot open.
“Scarlett?” He said, confused. “What’s going on, where are you?”
“I’m right here.”
“What’s going on?” he said, looking in the opposite direction of where I stood.
I looked down, “oh my god.”
“You’re invisible. That’s amazing,” he said in awe.
“I have to go back and get Annabelle.”
“No, I’ll do it. I think I have enough strength.”
“No, let me. No one will see me. I’ll be fine.”
“Okay,” he agreed, but I could tell he wasn't happy about it.
I walked over to the fence, ready to get the worst part over with. When I grabbed the bars, my hand went right through. I took two steps forward, and I was in.
“Am I dead?” I whispered to myself. I went straight back to the clubhouse, walking through trees and fences. When I got there Annabelle was outside. She looked angry.
“I didn’t think they would actually leave me,” she said to herself.
“Hey,” I whispered.
“Whoa. Who’s there?”
“It’s Scarlett,” I said. “Come on we have to get back to Skylar.”
“Why can‘t I see—”
“I don’t know. I think I might be dead. I can walk through things; I just don’t understand why you guys can hear me.”
“Okay, we have to get back to the car and figure this out.”
We ran through the trees, when we got to the gate, the car was gone. Off to the left of the gate, there were two men standing there talking.
“I told you I saw three of them come in. I never saw them leave. There was a ca
r parked a few feet that way,” one man explained.
“Well then we comb the whole place. You don’t leave the gate you hear me?” The other man threatened.
“What are we going to do Scarlett?” She asked.
“You’re going to have to climb the fence right here,” I said.
“But its brick, how am I supposed to climb it?”
“Climb that tree. I’ll be on the other side okay?”
“Okay,” she said with apprehension. I went to the other side; she was up the tree level with the top of the brick wall.
“Good, good,” I reassured her. “Now get on top of the wall, careful. Good. Now grab that branch.” It broke, and she fell to the ground. “Are you okay?” I ran over to her.
“Yeah, let’s go find Skylar," she said as she brushed the dirt off of herself.
We ran as fast as we could, a little ways down the road my whole body went numb. I fell to the ground, but Annabelle kept running. After the numbness subsided it felt like I was being stabbed over every inch of my body. Once I could breathe, I couldn’t help but scream. Annabelle must have realized I wasn’t with her, when I looked up, she was standing about ten feet away.
“Eh, gross,” she said with a horrified look on her face.
Pieces of flesh came back one by one, like a puzzle. It was agonizing. I laid there waiting for it to all be over, biting my lip to hold back the tears. I clawed into the dirt road, and closed my eyes.
“Is she okay?” I heard Skylar ask.
“I—I don’t know.”
“Where did you go?” I demanded, clenching my teeth.
“They know we were there, and they know why. They’re going to come after us. We need to leave now.”
“I can’t,” I screamed. He picked me up, and it burned where he touched.
“Where’s the car?” Annabelle asked.
“It’s down the road, not too far away.”
By the time we reached the car, I was visible again. A little numbness and what felt like pin pricks lingered. Compared to the stabbing sensation, this was pleasant. He set me in the front seat and ran to the other side, nothing was said for miles.
“My parents could be in trouble,” Annabelle blurted out of nowhere.
“Do you have any other ideas of where they might be?” I said, exhausted.
“Well, the Alliance is pretty spread out, the closest one to here is in Sunny Bay,” she replied. I turned to face her. The Alliance has always been so close, it gave me shivers.
“That’s where we’re going,” I mumbled.
“So what happened to your friend?” She asked out of nowhere.
“I don’t know what happened to her, but I told her about a dream I had before I knew it was my power. Before I knew she would die, or disappear for it.”
“So maybe your friend and my parents are both there.”
“I still don’t understand why they would take your parents,” Skylar chimed in.
“I think I might be adopted. They never told me, I couldn’t figure it out either.” I looked back, and she was in tears.
“A lot of people don’t tell their children they were adopted and do you know why? Because they love them as much or more than if they were their biological parents.”
“There could be other reasons,” Skylar whispered under his breath.
“How could you say that?” I yelled.
“I mean in other people’s cases.”
“Then who are you talking about?” I wondered.
“No one it’s just a hypothetical situation.”
“Okay?” I shook him off and turned back to comfort Annabelle. “I’m sure your parents are worried sick about you right now. We will find them.”
“Thanks,” she said, I looked back at her, and she smiled. “Even though we just met, I feel like you’re one of the closest friends I have.”
“I feel the same,” I smiled. “But I don’t have any friends anymore, so I guess you would be the closest.”
“Why don’t you have friends anymore?” she asked.
“Everyone thinks I killed my best friend,” I murmured. “It’s a really long story besides what I already told you, telling Grace about my dream and all.”
“That sucks. I thought having my family taken away was bad enough. I don’t know what I would do if everyone thought I did something.”
“Yeah,” I tried my hardest to fake a smile. “So where are we going?” I wondered.
“Somewhere we can hide out; somewhere they can’t get to us.”
“Umm...” I waited for him to explain. He kept his eyes on the road, not saying another word. “How long are you planning on hiding out, what about Grace, what about Annabelle’s parents?”
“I couldn’t care less about Annabelle or her parents,” he snapped. I looked back her eyes went from left to right, trying not to make eye contact, with me, or Skylar looking in the rearview mirror.
“I’m—” I started to apologize.
“No,” she said, it was clear that she was angry. “It doesn’t matter,” she fought back the tears. “No one cares about me. Why should I have thought that would change once I met people like me? I was dumb.”
“Anna—” I tried again to comfort her.
“It really doesn’t matter, Scarlett. You can let me out here.”
“I’m not going to drop you off in the middle of nowhere. I’m sorry. I was an—”
“You might be sorry you said it, but no matter what you were thinking it, and I don’t want to be your charity case.”
“Please Annabelle,” I said. “I don’t know about him, but I don’t want you to go.”
“Neither do I, this has just set us back. I was frustrated. I really am sorry.”
“It’s okay,” she said after a long silence.
We drove for miles down a dirt road, forest on both sides. Annabelle fell asleep in the back, and I was pretty close to falling asleep, too. I was afraid though, of what might be waiting for me. The girl I changed wasn’t the only of her kind, and they were after me, too. Would a solution for all of them come just as easy or would I fall asleep never to wake up again?
“Why were you being like that?” I asked. My hopes of what he could be were crushed. Dante would never talk to someone like that, warranted or not. He was the sweetest person I’d ever met, and it was foolish of me to think I could find that in someone else.
“She set us back. I don’t know how far, and I know it wasn’t her intention. I didn’t think before I said it.”
“So what was the whole adoption thing about, hmm?” He didn’t answer.
“We’re here,” he announced. I looked around. It was dark and I didn’t see much of anything, just the same unending dirt road and forest.
“Are we camping?” I asked.
“No. We’re going to see a pretty widely known family on the good side.”
“If they’re well known wouldn’t this be a bad idea?”
“No. You’ll see,” he said as he parked the car behind some trees. “Wake her up.”
“Annabelle?” I said as I shook her.
“Wha—” she jolted awake.
“We’re here… I guess.”
We walked into the dark, creepy forest. When we were a couple of feet in, the trees started to glow.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“This family has lived here for generations, and they’ve been known for almost as long. The soil here senses our good energy, and absorbs some of it. If we were evil, gifted or not, we would have burst into flames. If someone evil got their hands on even a small amount of it, without bursting into flames, the damage could be catastrophic.
“You’re not serious,” I said in awe. Most of the trees glowed with a bright white light, while others changed colors.
“No, I’m serious.”
“So how long are these people going to let us stay here?” Annabelle asked. “I know I wouldn’t let three strangers stay at my place.”
“They help people
. They’re on the exact opposite side of the spectrum as the Alliance, or people who just use their powers for evil.”
“We’re getting closer,” I sensed when the glow got brighter.
“We’re almost there,” he said.
“How did you know where to stop the car?” I wondered.
“I doubt you noticed, but about ten feet back from where I stopped, there was a carving in a tree of a star.”
“Oh,” I said, disappointed, I was waiting for some magical explanation.
“Well, here we are,” he said as he pushed a branch aside. Once he did, I saw a striking log cabin. It was amazing; vines ran up the house, and the trees around it. The walkway leading to the door was covered with sleek black stone, and on each side was a row of flowers. A wreath hung on the door, and there was a colorful floral doormat. He knocked on the door. A young girl answered.
“Hi, I’m Skylar. This is Scarlett, and Annabelle,” he said. “Are your parents home?”
“One second,” she said in an innocent voice.
“Hello, what brings you three here?” The dad asked as he came to the door.
“The Alliance is after us,” he explained.
“What did you do?” He said, shocked. “They don’t go after our kind, unless we’ve really screwed up.”
“Well she…” he said pointing to me, “…told her best friend about her powers, it was an accident. It’s a long story. And she…” he pointed to Annabelle. “…I guess showed her parents her powers, she thinks she was adopted so that explains it.”
“Uh, I don’t think that would be a good enough cause to go after you,” he said trying to sound polite.
“Well, there’s nothing else, we did break into one of their neighborhoods, but only to try and get her parents back. We didn’t destroy anything, and her parents weren’t even there.”
“If you say so,” he said.
“What, you don’t believe me?” Skylar asked.
“The Alliance wouldn't waste their time coming after someone if they didn’t have good reason. Not even one division would waste their time if it wasn’t worth it.”
“I’m really sorry for us having to disrupt your night, but that’s all that happened. They’re after us, and if what you said is true they must have a good reason for coming after us. However, we don’t know what that reason is so…”
“Okay, I’m sorry,” he said to Skylar. “I just hope all of what you say is true, we would be more than happy to help you out.”
“Thank you,” I said.
“But if I find out you have done something, and are taking advantage—”
“You won’t, we promise,” Skylar said while shaking his hand.
“Okay, there are some apartments over there; it’s easier with all the people that come to us. We’ll talk in the morning,” he handed Skylar two keys. “One for you two,” he motioned to me and Annabelle. “And one for you.”
“Thanks,” Skylar said as he grabbed the keys.
“No, problem, goodnight.”
“Goodnight,” we all said together.
“Wait,” he said. “
“What were your names again?”
“I’m Skylar, and this is Annabelle and Scarlett.”
“Okay, I’m George, if you need anything there’s a number next to the phones.”
The apartments were a little farther away than I thought, though we could see the light outside shining the whole way. They were nice, cream and brown with red doors.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” Skylar asked pulling me aside.
“Yeah,” I said as he threw a key to Annabelle. “I’ll be right there,” I called to her.
“Look, I’m sorry for the way I’ve been. I have some things to tell you, if Annabelle wouldn’t mind.”
“You mean, stay with you in your room? Maybe Annabelle would want to join us; I know I wouldn’t want to be left alone.”
“She’s safe here,” he persuaded.
“Alright, I guess. Let me check with her.” I walked up to the door. It creaked as it opened.
“Hey,” she said, looking up. “I’m pretty tired I think I’m just going to go to sleep.”
“Oh, would you mind if I stayed with Skylar? He said he has some things to tell me.”
“Oh, no you go ahead girl. Have fun, don’t get too crazy over there,” she teased.
“Real funny,” I laughed. “Come over if you need anything, okay?”
“I wouldn’t want to disrupt—”
“Okay,” I interrupted. “I’ll see you later.” When I walked out the door, Skylar was waiting outside.
“She said it’s alright,” I said.
“I heard,” he laughed. His cheeks were red.
He walked up to the door and turned the key. It looked the same as Annabelle’s room, red blankets, and sky-blue walls. A mirror framed with gold-colored metal. A vase stood on a cherry-stained table; the flowers in it were fake, but still beautiful. A white lamp with flowers painted on it lit the room. He lay down on the bed, patting for me to lie next to him.
“So… what did you want to tell me?” I asked.
“I’ve been trying to tell you this since the night you came home,” he explained.
“Okay, so tell me,” I said, intrigued.
“I’m not who I say I am,” he looked over at me. The thoughts that were running through my head couldn’t possibly be what he was about to say. “It’s me, Dante.” Or maybe they could.