Chapter 9: Dante
My thoughts raced, there was so much going through my head at once. It all seemed to blur together. Dante was standing right in front of me; he had been the whole time. I gushed to him about my love for him, without knowing it was him. I wasn’t stupid. I saw the resemblance the second I laid eyes on him, but Joe didn’t seem to notice anything. He left me alone for a minute. I couldn’t even imagine the facial expressions I made while I sat there motionless staring at the wall. He went over to the mirror and took the contacts out of his eyes.
“Man these were getting irritating,” he said as he looked back at me. I didn’t answer; he walked over to me and knelt down so he was at eye-level. My heart stopped for a moment, as I stared into those deep-brown eyes, I could never imagine just right. Then I remembered—him and Grace. “Is everything okay? I thought you would be happy,” he whispered.
“I think I’m going to go,” I said as I got up.
“Wait, you’re not happy to see me?” He asked.
“You‘ve been here the whole time, you could have told me sooner,” I snapped. “Instead you let me go on and confess my undying love to you?”
“I’m sorry,” he laughed.
“It’s not even close to being funny,” I growled.
“Come on it’s a little funny,” he teased.
“You’re an a—”
“Whoa, be nice.”
“I’ll still help you find your girlfriend, but unless it has to do with Grace, you can leave me alone.” He grabbed my arm as I was about to leave.
“Yeah, I thought that was what this was about.”
“Please, just let me go.”
“First I need to explain something to you, sit.” I did as he said, though everything inside me told me not to. “I don’t quite remember everything from that night either.”
“You don’t need to make excuses, Dante. You can do whatever you want, and I’m mad because you didn’t tell me sooner, you just let me go on and on about you.”
“I tried to tell you, at least twice,” he reasoned.
“Well you didn’t tell me,” I got up and walked back and forth. “You were the one person I could trust.”
“I’m sorry,” he said with a sincerity that was hard not to believe. “Please just stay.”
“I’ll stay,” I said, as I sat down. “But only because Annabelle’s already asleep, and I don’t want to disturb her.” I laid my weary head down, and he lay next to me.
“I’ve always been in love with you,” he whispered under his breath.
I turned on my side facing away from him, and soon I was asleep.
In my dream, I was walking through the woods, these woods. The trees shimmered. I kept walking. I didn’t know where I was going, or why. The pure white glow took on a reddish tint; I started to feel on edge, but I didn’t know why. Someone ran into me, pushing me against a tree so hard I thought my bones would shatter; they put their hand up to my mouth.
“You and your little friends need to stop,” he ran his hand down to my neck. My eyes stayed glued on his face. “Or someone is going to get hurt.”
He was creepy, his thin face and the look in his ice-blue eyes as they stared down at me, was enough for me to know that this guy was up to no good. If that was the case, however, how did he get here? According to Dante, no one evil could set foot here.
“What do you want?” I choked. His hands around my neck made it difficult to speak.
“I want you to stop looking for your friend, among other things,” he cackled. He pinched a lock of my hair between his finger tips and smelled it.
“Get away from me, you freak,” I pushed him away with everything I had in me. He was far enough away now, that I could see he was hovering about a foot above the dirt. That’s how he could come here, I thought. He came at me full force; I put my hands up in front of me and closed my eyes.
When I opened my eyes, I was lying in bed, I turned over, and Dante was gone. I walked out the door. I hated the fact that the woods haunted me; I’d never seen anything more beautiful than this. The light shined through the branches, and broke around the trees. The thick air made the light look almost tangible as it flowed to the ground. A few orange and yellow leaves accentuated the green; fall was here. I took a short walk through the trees, overcoming my fears, while taking in the beauty.
“Scarlett?” I heard from behind a tree. It was a voice so familiar that I couldn’t mistake it.
“Grace?” My voice broke half way through. I took a deep breath and moved a little closer.
“Wait, stay there.” She came out from behind the tree, looking dirty and bruised. Another observation I made, she was wearing sweats, the Grace I knew wouldn’t be caught dead wearing sweat pants.
“Grace,” I shrieked as I ran over to her, forgetting everything between us. She put her hands up to stop me, and then backed away; her footsteps didn’t make a sound.
“It’s me,” she whispered in a sad tone, with a half-hearted smile stretching across her face.
“How did you get here?” I wondered. It was so far from Sunny Bay, and she couldn’t have known we would be here.
“Sometimes I just show up places; I don’t know how I do it. It just happens.”
“What happened? I need to know.” She went from normal to translucent. “Oh god,” I said horrified, what was happening to her?
“I don’t have long,” she sighed. “The people who have me aren’t the ones who attacked me.”
“Who attacked you Grace?”
“It was someone we both trusted.”
“Are you dead?” I cried.
“No, not yet, I don’t know why I can do this. Every time I lose consciousness this happens. Sometimes I go to the woods, sometimes I end up with my parents, sometimes with you, but no one ever sees me. You didn’t see me, until now.”
“So, I didn’t do this to you?” I asked.
“No, no, you would never do this to me. All the people who made you think that, ugh, I could just kill them.”
“Where are you?” I urged.
“I don’t know. I‘m alone in a basement, the people here keep asking me strange questions.”
“Does the Alliance sound familiar?” I asked.
“Not that I can remember.”
“How much longer do you have? Are you hurt?” I asked.
“I don’t think I’m hurt that bad. My leg pops out of place every now and then, but it used to be a lot worse.”
“So you have no idea where you are, how far you are from Sunny Bay?”
“Oh no,” she said as she faded away until all that was left of her, was a vague outline. “They’re waking me up.”
“Don’t go Grace, please. I need to know where you are.”
“Scarlett,” she whispered. “Help me.”
I turned around. I thought the apartments were right behind me, but it was obvious that I’d gone further than I thought. I ran so fast I thought I might collapse, but I kept going; I had hope now.
“I’ve been looking for you,” Dante said as I approached the apartments.
“I—” I bent over trying to catch my breath.
“What happened? What’s wrong?” He demanded.
“Nothing,” I wheezed. “I saw her. She’s alive.”
“Well, where is she?”
“That’s where it gets odd,” I said unsure of how to explain what had just happened. “She said when she loses consciousness, she goes places. I guess I’m the only one who can see her though.”
“That seems… odd.”
“I know, but I believe her,” I said, as I walked back inside and sat on the bed.
“Why would you be the only one who can see her? And how is she going places, when her body isn’t?”
“I don’t know, maybe I can see her because we were so close? But that doesn’t explain why her parents can’t see her.”
“Maybe George will have an explanation; I’ve already talked with him.”
“What did he say?”
I wondered.
“Just that something very strange is going on.”
“I’ll go get Annabelle, and then we can head over there,” I said, as I walked from the room.