Текст книги "The Fallen Star"
Автор книги: Jessica Sorensen
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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 19 страниц)
Back before all hell had broken loose.
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For a moment, I just stood there, soaking in the sunshine and breathing in the cool fall air. Then suddenly it dawned on me. I’d obviously gotten sucked into the Foreseers ball like Alex had warned might happen.
He’d also warned me that I could get stuck inside it. All of my calmness was ripped away in the blink of an eye.
Okay. Okay. Don’t panic.Yeah, that was easier said than done. I gazed around frantically, crossing my fingers that somehow a magical door would materialize out of thin air. Magic existed, right? So why couldn’t I just conjure up a door. Because I’m not witch, that’s why. And, of course, no door ever appeared.
That’s when I really started freaking out.
“Help!” I screamed at the top of my lungs. “Someone! Anyone!” Tears stung the corners of my eyes.
Great. Now I was crying. I hated to think it, but not being able to feel right now would 424/695
have come in real handy, because I was becoming hysterical. And being all frantic and crazed wasn’t going to get me anywhere.
I took a deep breath and tried to relax.
Okay, you can do—
A stream of purple whipped past me. I jumped back, my hand pressing against my heart, my breath fumbling to regain its steadiness. My gaze darted after the purple blur, and I realized it wasn’t a blur but a little girl wearing a purple dress. She had to be around four or five years old. Her long brown hair whipped in the wind as she stood at the edge of the lake, staring out at the water.
Unsure of how a Foreseer vision’s worked, I approached her cautiously. Would I be able to communicate with her? God, I hoped so.
“Excuse me.” I went to tap her on the shoulder, but my hand slipped through her 425/695
like I’d just tried to touch a ghost. Great. I raised the volume of my voice. “Hello!” Nothing. The girl just stood there, completely unfazed by my loudness as she stared out at the lake.
Great. Now what? If I couldn’t communicate with anyone, then how was I ever going to figure a way out of here?
The little girl started twirling in circles, and I gasped as I caught sight of her face. It was all hazy, like bad reception on a televi-sion screen. I blinked my eyes and rubbed them with the heels of my hands, but the haze stayed.
“Don’t get too close to the lake,” a voice called out from behind me.
I spun around just as a boy ran past me.
He looked a few years older than the little girl and had dark brown hair. His face was hazed over as well.
“You need to be careful or you might fall in,” he warned.
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“Don’t worry,” the little girl replied, teeter-tottering near the edge of the water. “I won’t fall in.”
“Please just move away,” he begged, his hand extended out to her. “You don’t know how to swim.”
She took hold of his hand, and he guided her away from the lake.
I was having another weird déjà vumoment, just like I’d had when I’d disappeared into the field during the fieldtrip. The peoples’ faces had been blurry then too. So what did that mean? Were the two linked somehow? This had to be a vision, and the fieldtrip thingy…well, I didn’t know what that was. It couldn’t have been a vision, though. How could it have been? It wasn’t like I’d touched a Foreseer’s ball.
“You two get over here right now!” A man barked from somewhere behind me.
His voice made the atmosphere alter into a-graveyard-in-the-middle-of-the-night kind 427/695
of setting. The kind of setting that makes the hair on your arms stand on end, and your stomach churn.
Before I could even turn around, the man appeared beside me. He was tall, husky, and had jet black hair similar to Marco’s. He wore a black button down shirt, grey slacks, and a gold chain dangled around his neck.
His face was also hazy.
I quickly caught on that he was intimidating with the way he shook at my nerves.
Even the kids seemed to back away from him.
“It’s time to go,” his voice iced out. “Go inside and pack your stuff.”
“Where am I going?” the little girl asked, gripping tightly to the little boy’s hand like her life depended on it.
“That’s none of your business!” the man roared.
Even though I couldn’t see the girls face, I knew she had to of flinched. I flinched. The 428/695
fear that he might actually hurt the two of them howled through me. And what was I supposed to do if he did? Stand by and watch helplessly?
I heard the soft treading of approaching footsteps. Then a figure rushed by me. It was a woman with long brown hair and a face as hazy as the others.
She swept the little girl up in her arms and hugged her protectively. “You stay away from her!” she shouted at the man.
Her presence brought warmth that mixed with the chill the man sent out. The two combined created a mixture of emotions that buzzed through the air and made me nauseous.
“This is not your decision,” the man rumbled at the women. “You knew when she was born things like this may have to happen.”
“Mommy,
I’m
scared,”
the
girl
whispered.
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The woman—the mother smoothed back the little girl’s hair and kissed her on the forehead. “It’s going to be okay. You don’t need to be scared. I promise I won’t let anything happen to you.”
The man laughed the kind of laugh that sent fear soaring through my body. “I’d like to see you try.” He turned to the little boy.
“Go inside, right now.”
The boy didn’t move.
“Now!” The man ordered.
“Yes, father.” The boy’s voice shook. He treaded up a hill, heading toward a castle-like building made of grey stone and tall towers. Where the building had come from, who knew?
After the boy disappeared inside the castle, the man turned back to the woman.
“Now we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
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She stood defiantly, holding the little girl tightly in her arms. “You’re not taking her anywhere. She’s my daughter, not yours.”
“So it’s going to be the hard way, then.” He lunged at the woman and snatched the little girl away.
The woman desperately fought to get her back, tearing and clawing at the man’s arms.
The girl reached for her mother, kicking and screaming with all her might. “I want to stay with you! Don’t let him take me!” It didn’t matter, though. Their efforts were useless. The man stood strong, entirely unaffected by their attempts. And when he plucked a small black bag out of his pocket, the woman froze. Silence choked the air, and I could hear my heart thudding.
Balancing the little girl in one arm, he dangled the bag in front of the woman.
“Now, like I said, we can do this the easy way or the hard way.”
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“You wouldn’t dare,” whispered the woman.
“Wouldn’t I?” He looked down at the little girl in his arms. “Hey sweetie, how would you like to go for a swim in the lake?” The girl hovered back. “But I can’t swim.”
“You’ll be fine,” the man coaxed.
“Someone will be there to help you.”
“Knock it off!” screamed the woman, clenching her hands into fists. “I know you’re bluffing. You need her too much.” The man laughed wickedly, making the hairs on my arms stand on end. “There are ways to get her back when I need her. She’d probably be better off down there anyway until its time.”
The woman’s breathing faltered. “Please don’t do this. Please.” The man laughed again. “Oh, I won’t just as long as you get into the lake yourself.” 432/695
Go in the lake! Why! What was he going to do to her? Try and drown her?
I felt sick.
“You’ll never get away with this.” Her voice was edging near a sob. “I know the real reason why you want her, and sooner or later, someone else is going to figure it out.
You’ll never be able to get away with it.”
“Oh, I highly doubt it. I have everyone wrapped around my little finger.” He set the girl down on the ground, pointed his finger at the castle, and ordered the little girl to,
“Go inside.”
The little girl didn’t budge.
“Go!” The man hollered.
Again she didn’t budge. She was brave a one, because I’m pretty sure I’d have been running for my life by now.
“Go ahead honey,” her mother urged in a soothing voice. “It’s alright. I’ll be okay.” It took the girl a second, but she finally walked away, casting one last glance back at 433/695
her mother before starting up the hill toward the castle.
My heart broke for the little girl and the mother. Somehow—and I don’t know how—I knew it would be the last time they’d see each other. She’d grow up motherless, perhaps even hating the people who’d be chosen to raise her. There’d forever be an empty hole resting in her heart.
“Now it’s time to deal with you,” the man said turning back to the woman. He let a pause drag out, like he was trying to instill fear with his silence. “Get in the lake. Now.” No. No. No. No. No.There was no way he was really going to throw her in the lake.
No. He couldn’t. Could he?
“You’ve been planning this all along, haven’t you?” Her voice quivered. “Every single word that’s come out of your mouth has been nothing but a lie.”
“You know me very well,” he said. “Now quit stalling and get into the lake.” 434/695
Shaking her head, she backed up toward the water. The man followed after her, matching her every step.
I chased after them, desperately wishing I could do something to stop the man from forcing the woman into the lake. I still wasn’t sure what was going to happen when she got into the lake, but it had to be something very bad. My gut instinct was telling me so.
“You’re wrong about not getting caught.” She’d reached the brink of the lake, the waves rolling up against the heels of her feet.
“There are people who you don’t have wrapped around your finger.”
“Then I’ll have to take care of them as well.” He tugged open the black bag, scooped out a handful of something that looked like ash, and sprinkled it into the lake, making the water cloud a dark grey.
“Don’t think you’ve won.” She raised her chin high and stepped back, submerging her 435/695
legs into the water. “Someday it will all catch up with you.”
Another few steps and the water was waist deep on her. The lake lay dead calm, like the calm before the storm. Then came the loud swoosh! Water splashed up and she plunged down.
I let out a blood curdling scream.
The man turned his back on the drowning woman and strolled away, whistling some funky tune that sounded like a combin-ation between “It’s a Small Word After All” and “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star.” Without even thinking, I ran into the water, forcing myself to go farther and farther as the cold water ascended higher and higher. But when it reached waist deep on me, I realized two things: 1) Like the little girl, I couldn’t swim, and 2) I couldn’t actually touch the woman, so how was I supposed to save her?
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Shortly after these thoughts crossed my mind, a third reason why I shouldn’t have gone into the water dawned on me. Because, obviously, there was something wrong with the lake. Why I hadn’t thought of this before was beyond me. I’d heard the swish. I’d seen the splash. Heck, I’d seen the man dump some creepy ashy stuff into it.
I should have known better than to go running into it.
But I didn’t, and it was too late now. A bony hand had already grabbed me by the ankle and was trying to jerk me beneath the water. I kicked and screamed and fought with every ounce of strength I had, but whatever the hand belong to was strong. It pulled me under the ice-cold water and kept dragging me deeper and deeper down. I couldn’t see a thing. My oxygen supply was dwindling. So this is what it feels like to diewas the last thought I had before I blacked out.
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Chapter 22
I gasped for air as my eyes shot open.
Purple walls and glass counters surrounded me. I was back at Adessa’s. I’d made it. I wasn’t dead. My skin was dry. My feet were planted firmly to the checkerboard tile. The Foreseer’s Crystal Ball was cupped in my hand.
“Ah!” I shrieked and dropped the ball. It hit the ground hard, causing it to crack down the center.
“Gemma.”
I looked away from the broken ball and found Alex standing right next to me, his green eyes wider than usual, his mouth set in a worried line.
Behind him stood Laylen, with the same worried expression on his face.
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I breathed heavily. “What the heck happened?”
“What do you mean what the heck happened? You touched the Foreseer’s ball after I told you not to.” His voice, although full of anger, slightly shook.
“It was an accident,” I snapped. “I didn’t mean to touch that—that—” I waved my hand at the broken Foreseer ball. “Thing.” All three of us stared down at it. Water was seeping out through the crack, forming a puddle on the floor.
“Well, what happened?” Alex asked, his voice a little calmer now, but he still looked concerned.
What happened? Well, let me see. I got sucked into a tunnel, hit my face on the ground,
and
watched
a
woman
get
murdered. All I got to come out of my mouth, though, was, “I-I…”
“Did you go into a vision?” Alex asked, speaking slowly like I was incompetent.
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“Yeah. I mean, at least I think I did.”
“And you were able to come back,” he stated with amazement.
A loud crash suddenly echoed through the room. Scaring me half to death, I jumped and ended up ramming my shoulder into Alex’s chest.
“Sorry.” Laylen apologized as he swept up a black ceramic candlestick he’d apparently knocked onto the floor.
I let my breathing slow down. Man, I was getting jumpy. But really, could you blame me?
“I’m going to take her outside, and see if I can get her to calm down.” Alex told Laylen.
Laylen nodded, and Alex led me to the front door. He made me wait there while he checked inside the GTO to make sure everything was safe. Once he gave me the go ahead, I went outside, and we climbed in the back seat of the car.
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Both of us were quiet for awhile, the night spilling through the cab of the car. I could barely see anything, which did nothing for my nerves.
“So what did you see?” Alex finally asked.
“Um…” I fumbled for some sort of words that could explain the horrible scene I’d just been forced to watch. “Something….You know, I’m not sure I really want to talk about it.”
“Well, you have to,” he said. “If you saw a vision, I need to know what happened. It’s important.”
I massaged the sides of my temples and sighed. “Fine.”
I gave a recap of every detail I could remember about the vision. Of course, I couldn’t describe what the people looked like, since their faces had been blurred over.
And none of them had said any names, so 442/695
the chance of us being able to figure out who the people where were slim to none.
“You know you were really lucky, right?” Alex asked me when I’d finished.
“Lucky how?” Did he not get that I’d just witness a woman being murdered?
“Well, for starters, you were lucky you even made it back. I’ve heard stories about people getting stuck inside visions and never returning. And you were also lucky you didn’t get captured by the Water Faerie.”
“Water Faerie,” I repeated, mystified.
“What’s a Water Faerie?”
“It’s what pulled both you and the woman down in the lake. Water Faeries are the Guardian’s of The Underworld.”
“The Underworld?” I said “As in the place where the Greeks believed people went after they died.”
“Kind of.” He seemed hesitant to embel-lish on the subject, but I wasn’t going to let him get away with keeping anymore secrets 443/695
from me. Not this time. Not after what I’d just witness.
“Tell me,” I demanded. “Or I’ll just go ask Laylen to explain it to me.” I thought that might make him angry, but instead, he just stared at me with what I thought looked like a trace of hurt in his bright green eyes. What he’d be hurt about, though, I had no idea. I’d probably just imagined it or something.
“Fine.” He threw his hands in the air, giving in, which shocked that crap out of me.
“The Underworld is the land of the dead. It’s also a prison. After we—the Keepers capture someone like, say for instance, a vampire that had been on a killing spree, we sentence them to a life down in The Underworld as a form of punishment.”
I questioned whether he’d used a vampire as his example intentionally, as a way to get back at me for threatening to go ask Laylen if he didn’t start explaining things.
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“But why wouldn’t you just kill them instead.
I mean, you killed that Death Walker. Why can’t you kill a vampire too?”
“Trust me, death is a milder punishment then getting sent down there. Most go insane from the torture after only a few weeks time.”
Something suddenly occurred to me.
“Hold on just a second. Does that mean the woman I saw get dragged down into the lake is going to end up in the Underworld?”
“Maybe,” he answered reluctantly. “The Water Faeries usually don’t kill the people or the things they capture. They are under strict orders to take whatever they catch straight to the prison.”
“But why do they want prisoners?”
“Because they feed off their fear. It’s what keeps them thriving even in their dead form.”
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I swallowed hard. “So if the vision I saw really ends up happening, then the woman’s going to end up being tortured down there.”
“Maybe. But she also might already be down there.” He sighed. “Sometimes when someone inexperienced tries to see into the future they just end up seeing something that has already happened.”
“So she could be down there right now!” The loudness of my voice made us both glance around nervously. I’m not sure what we were looking for, though. There was nothing around but vacant buildings.
Alex gave me a look that stressed for me to keep my voice down. “She could be down there right now, but if she’s been down there for awhile, then she may have already died.
Depending on how strong she is, she could be able to survive the torture for up to a few years without it driving her mad. But if she’s already lost her mind, the Queen would have had her killed.”
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“Why would the Queen have her killed?
And who’s this Queen anyway?”
“The Queen of the Dead. She’s in charge of everything that goes on in The Underworld. After a prisoner goes insane, they no longer produce the right kind of fear for her people to feed off of so she gets rid of them.” I gaped. “By killing them.” Alex sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. “You have to understand that most of the things—or people we send down there have committed horrible crimes. The kind of crimes that haunt peoples’ nightmares.”
“Yeah, well, considering the Death Walker’s haunt my nightmares…” I trailed off. I really shouldn’t have mentioned that.
He cocked an eyebrow. “You’ve dreamt about them?”
I nodded. “A lot actually.”
“Why the heck didn’t you tell me this before?”
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I shrugged. “You keep secrets,” and probably still are,“so why can’t I.” He shook his head, clearly irritated. “Did you dream about them before you ever saw them in real-life?”
“Yeah, I started having the dreams a couple of months ago, and the first time I saw something that I thought might be a Death Walker was only a couple of weeks ago in the school parking lot. But I wasn’t one hundred percent sure if I’d actually seen one.
I thought I might have imagined seeing it or something.”
“It was back when I had to chase you down in the parking lot so I could give you your book, wasn’t it? When you were freaking out and wouldn’t tell me why.” I nodded. It seemed like such a long time ago.
He stretched his arm across the top of the seat. “So you started dreaming about 448/695
them around the same time you started to experience emotions?”
A touchy subject for me, especially since I knew he wanted my emotions gone. I needed to make sure and be vague with my answer, because I didn’t want to let anything slip out that might help him solve why I’d spontaneously started to feel. As ridiculously selfish as I knew it was, I wanted to keep feeling.
For the most part, anyway.
“I don’t know.” I turned to the window.
“Maybe.”
Electricity tickled up and down my spine. Being alone with Alex in the poorly ventilated car was driving me absolutely insane. Not necessarily in a bad way, though.
In fact, I think my body was building up a tolerance to electric sensation, because it was no longer making me feel like I had a fever.
Warm and sparkly, it felt kind of good.
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“So,” I began, turning my head back to him. “If it was a future vision I saw, would we be able to change what happened?” He shook his head. “Prophecies are very hard to change, and I don’t have a clue as to how we’d even be able to find out if it was a past or future vision. That is, unless we want to go to the City of Crystal and chat it up with the Foreseers.”
“City of Crystal?”
“It’s where most of the Foreseer’s live, but you can’t get there without this special kind of crystal ball, which happens to be very hard to come by.”
I felt like I just might cry. If I’d seen a future vision, how was I supposed to just sit around and let the woman get taken away to The Underworld for real? The place sounded awful and…well, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I knew the woman somehow. “I don’t get it. You say that prophecies are hard 450/695
to change, but isn’t that exactly what you guys are trying to do with me?”
“That’s different, though. We knew yours was a future prophecy right from the start, and a lot of energy and time has gone into trying to change it.” He sighed. “Besides, you areemotional so we haven’t done a very good job of changing it.”
“But you’re still trying to, right?” I picked at a loose string hanging off the hem of my denim skirt. “I mean, I’m sure you have a backup plan.”
“No we don’t,” he said quickly.
Way too quickly.
A red flag immediately went up. “What is it you’re not telling me?”
“I’m not keeping anything from you.” His voice smoothed out like honey I let out a cynical laugh. “I highly doubt that because, first off, it’s you were talking about. And second, you freaked out when I just asked you if you had a backup plan. So 451/695
what is it? What’s your big backup plan? Are you going to put me up in some super secret chamber and lock me away from everyone and everything until the only emotion I can feel is loneliness?”
“Actually, that’s not a bad idea,” he said.
“I’ll have to pass that one on to Stephan.” Furious, I reached around the side of the seat and searched for the handle that scooted it forward. I was so out of here.
Alex caught me by the elbow and drew me back. “I don’t think so. You’re not going anywhere.”
Wanna bet.
I tried to shuck off his hand. “Let go of me.”
He tightened his grip. “No.”
“I’m not going to just sit here and listen to you talk about turning me back into a walking zombie.” I reached for seat with my free hand, hoping if I could grab hold of 452/695
something then maybe I could jerk away from him.
Still grasping onto my arm, he snaked his free hand around my waist and pulled me back.
“You’re hurting my stitches,” I whined, even though his hand was on the opposite side.
He pulled me closer to him. “No, I’m not.”
I put up quite a fight, but in the end, he still managed to pin me against him, my back pressing firmly against his chest. This was both good and bad. Bad because I was really pissed off at him, and the last thing I wanted was to be near him. But it was also good because…Well, because it felt good. Nice and warm and effervescent.
Ugh.
“This is so stupid.” I seethed. “You can’t have control over everything I do.” 453/695
“Yeah, I can.” He held me so tight my skin warmed like melting butter, and I thought I might actually melt into him,
“Especially when you’re trying to do something stupid. Do you think what happened back at the Black Dungeon was a game? Do you not realize how close you came to getting killed? Because, let me tell you, if I wouldn’t have shown up when I did, then you and I wouldn’t be sitting here having this argument.”
I froze, slowly taking in his words. With every breath he took, I could feel his chest rising and falling against my back. My own breathing lifted and fell, rhythmically matching with his. The electricity seemed to be synchronizing with it, as if it were trying to create a harmonious song or something. It was weird and strangely comforting. Like, if I closed my eyes, I’d drift off into a peaceful, Death-Walker-free dream.
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“Gemma,” Alex whispered in my ear, sounding breathless. “I think that—” I never got to hear what he thought, because the passenger door swung open, and the interior lights clicked on.
It was Aislin. She held a small, gold box in her hands, which I assumed held a crystal inside. She started to climb in, but stopped when she caught sight of us. “What are you two doing?”
I can only imagine what this looked like to her; me practically sitting on Alex’s lap, his arms wrapped around me, obviously trapping me against him. Yeah, I’m pretty sure more than a few question marks were popping up in her head.
A few question marks were popping up in my head.
“Gemma was getting out of hand,” Alex replied coolly. “She needed to be dealt with.”
“I wasn’t getting out of hand,” I said in-dignantly. I tried to jam my elbow into his 455/695
side, but it didn’t go very far since I could barely move. “You are such a—” Alex threw his hand over my mouth. I thought about biting it, but then decided against it. I’m not sure why.
“Alex!” Aislin exclaimed. “You can’t just do whatever you want with her.” Alex dropped his hand from my mouth.
“Aislin, she was trying to jump out of the car and run away.”
Aislin frowned as she slammed the door.
The lights shut off, and I could barely make out the outline of her face. “You two really need to figure out a way to get along. This whole fighting-about-everything thing is not helping the stress level in this already way too stressful situation.”
“Well, if she’d behave,” Alex started at the same time I said, “If he’d leave me alone—”
Aislin lifted her eyebrows, giving us a see-what-I-mean look.
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“Fine,” Alex surrender. “I’ll stop.”
“I’ll stop too,” I told her. “Just as long as he lets me go.”
I guess to prove a point that he could still have some control over me, Alex waited about twenty more seconds before finally letting me go. And he refused to sit anywhere else but in the middle of the seat so he could be close enough to me in case I made an irrational decision to “jump out of the car while it was moving” as he so bluntly put it. Yeah, even I wasn’t that crazy. But whatever.
By the time the seating arrangement was all settled, Laylen emerged from Adessa’s looking somewhat happy. Hmmm….I wonder what was up with that.
He climbed in the car. “So what happened?” he asked me.
I furrowed my eyebrows. “What? With the crystal ball?”
He nodded. “Did you get sucked into a vision?”
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“What!” Aislin shouted. “She got sucked into a vision and no one told me.” I felt like I was getting strangled to death—that’s the effect just thinking about the vision had on me.
“I’ll explain it on the way back to the house,” Alex said. If I wouldn’t have known better, I would have thought he said it because he’d sensed my lack of comfort with the subject. But I did know better so…
“Okay.” Laylen started up the car, and the engine roared to life.
Aislin was more reluctant to give up on the discussion. She remained turned around in her seat, continuously eyeballing Alex and I until Laylen merged the car back onto the busy main street of Vegas. Then the dancing lights and throngs of people distracted her attention away from us.
After we’d made it back onto the highway, and the last of the lights had fizzled 458/695
away, I rested my head against the window, and, without even meaning to, I fell asleep.
Chapter 23
I was plummeting deeper and deeper in-to the murky water. I couldn’t breathe. Icouldn’t see.So this is what drowning feels like, I thought numbly.
I kicked my legs, trying to fight my way back to the surface. I refused to drown. I could not drown.
“Gemma,” a feathery voice floated up from beneath my feet.
Huh? Was I hallucinating?
I kicked harder and paddle with my arms, giving a very lame attempt at doggy paddling.
“No Gemma, down here,” the voice rippled up through the water.
And then I knew. I don’t know how Iknew, just that I did. I knew the voice didn’t460/695
mean me any harm. I was supposed to listen to it.
I was supposed to go to it.
I let my legs and arms fall limp, allow-ing my dead weight to sink me downward to the sandy bottom of the lake.
“Good,” the voice purred. “Now keepcoming. I need your help.”What do you need my help for? I thoughtbecause speaking would do nothing but getme a mouth full of water.
To my shock the voice responded insidemy head.I need you to save me.
How?
Just trust me.
I don’t know why, but I did.I do trust you.
Good. Now whatever you do, don’t panic.
Why would I panic?
The voice didn’t answer, but I figured out why very quickly as fingers wrapped around my ankles and yanked me down.
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Despite what the voice said, I panicked and clawed at the water, frantically trying to get away, but it was useless. I tried to scream, but water flooded my lungs. If I didn’t get away, I was a goner for sure. If I didn’t get away, I’d end up a prisoner in The Underworld, at least until I went insane and they killed me.
I needed to get away…
Shaing…shaking….huh….someone…shaking…my shoulder. My eyelids shot open.
Disoriented and groggy, I jerked away from whoever was touching me.
“Jeez, Gemma,” Alex said with his hands held up in front of him in a holy-crap-just-calm-down-I-didn’t-mean-you-any-harm kind of way. “Settle down.” I did a quick scan of my surroundings and realized I was still in the backseat of the GTO, which was now parked in the garage.
Laylen and Aislin were nowhere to be seen.
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It was just Alex and me…Why was it just Alex and me?
“Where are Aislin and Laylen?” I asked, rubbing my sleepy eyes.
“Their already inside,” he gave a nod in the direction of the garage door, “getting things set up.”
Yawning, I stretched out my arms. “So why are wesitting out here?”
“Because you fell asleep and I couldn’t get you to wake up.” He paused, looking as though he was considering something. “Were you having a nightmare?”
A nightmare. That was putting it mildly.
“Why do you ask?”
“Because you were getting all squirmy and making these moaning noises.” Oh. My. Word. I was absolutely mortified. “Oh.”
