The Vision

Текст добавлен: 14 сентября 2016, 21:47

Текст книги "The Vision"

Автор книги: Jessica Sorensen

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Chapter 34

“You can’t cheat your way there,” a voice said.

My eyelids fluttered open, and the first thing I saw were shoes. A pair of black shoes that shined in the light that flowed around them.

“If you want to find out the answer,” the voice said. “You have to search for it on your own.”

I rolled over on my back and looked up at my father, towering above me. “Am I in your head again?” I asked.

He smiled a gentle smile and helped me to my feet. “So you discovered where I am, then?”

I nodded, glancing around, noticing we weren’t in the same place as we were before. We were on a beach. The ocean’s waves crashed toward us and the bright light was the sun shining from the clear blue sky.

“Where are we?” I asked, getting to my feet.

“We are wherever I need us to be,” he said, heading down the shore.

I followed him. “But I thought you were in the Room of Forbidden….I thought you were stuck in your own head.” His violet eyes shined brightly in the sun as he looked at me. “I am, but I do get bored sometimes and changing the scenery helps pass the time.”

“Okay…but I don’t get something….how come the Foreseers put you in here? Why didn’t you just tell them what happened…that Stephan made you change the vision because he marked you with that.” I pointed at his wrist, which was covered by the sleeve of his robe.

He looked at me solemnly. “It’s the downfal of being a Foreseer, Gemma. There are no second chances or room for mistakes.”

“But you didn’t willingly make the mistake,” I argued as the ocean soaked at my feet. “Stephan made you do it.” Silence passed between us as the ocean crashed back and forth and birds cawed in the background.

“You need to stop worrying about me,” he said. “You have other problems to deal with at the moment.” I stopped and stared out at the ocean. “Like saving the world….because I already did that.”

“I know you did, but that is not what I’m talking about.” I shielded my eyes from the sun. “Then what are you talking about?”

“What you’re in store for.” He gazed out at the ocean.

“What waits for you in the near future.”

“I know what it is,” I told him. “I know that I die.”

“You’re still not getting it,” he said, sounding frustrated.

“You need to push that aside, otherwise you will never be able to save the world.”

I dropped my hand and turned my head toward him. “But, I already did that.”

“Not quite.” He reached into the pocket of his silver rob and pulled out a ring trimmed with violet gems. Then, he took my hand and set the ring in it.

“What is it?” I asked, gazing down at the ring, shimmering in the sunlight.

“That I cannot tell you.”

I frowned. “Why do you always say that? How can you give me things like this,” I held up the ring, “and the mapping ball, but you can’t tell me how to use them? And how do you even have these things, if we’re inside your head?”

He gave me an understanding smile. “This is my loophole Gemma. I’m able to give you these things, because we are in my head and not in the real world. What I do in here does not matter out there. But I cannot tell you how to use them, because that would be interfering with what you need to do out in the real world. You have to figure out the answers for yourself and pave the world with your memories.”

I stared at the ring in the palm of my hand. “I still don’t get it.”

“You will, when the time is right.” He shut my hand around the ring. “This is your loophole, Gemma.”

“My loophole to what? Saving my life or saving the world?

I asked, but the ocean blurred away and the sun began to dim—he was already sending me back.

“And no more trying to cheat, no matter what happens,” he called out, his voice sounding far away. “If you’re not careful, you’ll end up in here.”

I frowned, but said no more as I was yanked away, back to my room.

But when I opened my eyes, the boring tan walls of my room did not surround me.

All I could see was light.

Nothing but light.

Chapter 35

“Oh, my God, I’m dead,” were the first words that left my mouth.

“You’re not dead,” someone replied in a soft, purring voice.

I glanced around…I knew that voice. “But you are.”

“Am I?” the tricky half-faerie teased. “Are you sure about that?”

I shook my head. “I’m not sure about anything anymore.” I heard the soft thump of his footsteps moving through the light, heading toward me. “Of course, you’re not. You never have been.” He paused. “In fact, you’re the most confused girl I have ever known…always looking for the answers in the wrong places.”

“What do you mean?” I asked and suddenly he was right there, his golden eyes only inches away from me, the smell of flowers and rain smothering me to the point that I gagged.

“How can you be here, if I’m not dead?” I asked.

“I will answer that shortly,” he said. “But right now you have to go back.” And with that he shoved me backward, his hands searing hot against my shoulders.

I let out a scream as darkness suffocated me.

My eyes flew open and I shot upright, gasping for air. It took me a minute to realize I was on my bedroom floor, safe and sound from potentially dead faeries.

What kind of detour was that? One minute I was talking to my father, and the next thing I know I’m being shoved down by Nicholas.

I got to my feet, the ring that my father gave me clutched tightly in my hand. What was I supposed to do next? The only thing I could do, really. And that was to go inform everyone that the mystery was not yet solved.

“Why does he keep giving you things without an explanation of what they are?” Alex asked as he sat on the couch, twirling the ring in his fingers.

I shrugged. “I don’t know…he said it was because I had to figure things out on my own…and pave the world with my memories, whatever that means.”

Alex gave me a knowing look and then exchanged a strange look with Laylen.

“So you think there might be a way that we don’t have to die?” Alex asked with a hopeful expression.

I shrugged, not wanting to crush his hope, but not wanting to lie either. “I don’t know…everyone keeps talking about loopholes…so maybe.”

Alex exchanged another look with Laylen. What was this?

I mean, it wasn’t like the two of them really liked each other or anything, yet they seemed to be exchanging secrets with their eyes.

“Why do you keep giving each other weird looks like that?” I asked suspiciously.

“Yeah, what are you two up to?” Aislin asked form beside me, and I was glad she was noticing their weird behavior too.

Alex set the ring on the coffee table. “We’re not up to anything.” He got to his feet. “Laylen and I do, however, have somewhere to be.”

“Like where?” I asked at the same time Aislin said.

“What?”

Laylen glanced at his watch. “Is it time already?” Alex nodded and they headed for the door.

“Where are you going?” I called out, rising to my feet.

“Don’t worry,” Alex said, pausing in the doorway. “We’ll be back.”

Before I could say anything else, they walked out the front door and shut it behind them. I turned around and gaped at Aislin.

“Do you know what that was about?” I asked, pointing over my shoulder at the front door.

She shook her head, looking genuinely perplexed. “It was weird, though…definitely weird.”

I sat back down on the couch and picked up the ring my father gave me. “How is a ring my loophole?” Aislin took the ring from me and examined it. “I’m not sure…but I think we could start by finding out what kind of ring it is.”

“Any ideas on how to do that?”

She shrugged and we both sat there, staring at the violet gemmed ring, wondering what to do next.

“So have you figured out what went wrong with your spell?” I asked, taking the ring from her. What are you for?

She shook her head. “It’s strange…from everything I read, it should work, and I can feel the power and everything, but when I try to use it, I get nothing.” Without even thinking, I slipped the ring onto my finger.

“Gemma, what are you doing,” Aislin sputtered. “You can’t just put something like that on…what if it does something to you.”

We both waited in silence, for something to happen; sparks to fly, me to explode, but nothing happened.

I frowned disappointedly and Aislin let out a sigh.

“Did you ask your mom what it was?” Aislin pointed at the ring on my finger. “The ring, I mean.” I shook my head, leaned back in the sofa, and put my feet up on the coffee table. “Not yet.”

We grew silent again. I could hear the wind howling outside, and I wondered if a storm was coming.

Aislin opened the laptop. “I think maybe we could—” A loud bang cut her off. We both looked at each other and then we were on our feet, moving for the kitchen, where the bang came from.

Bang. Bang. Bang

We paused at the doorway of the kitchen, too afraid to enter as the banging continued to rattle at the air.

“What is that?” Aislin whispered.

I shook my head. “I don’t know…do you have like a weapon or something, just in ca…” I trailed off as smoke whirled across the floor, brushed across my ankles and drifted into the living room.

“Where is that coming from?” Aislin asked as more smoke swept across the floor.

“I don’t know.” For some reason, though, I thought of the vision I saw, the one where the streets of Afton were filled with fire.

Aislin slipped a knife out of the pocket of her shorts and held it up in front of her. “On the count of three?” I nodded. “On the count of three…one…two…three.” We both jumped into the kitchen, ready to kick some butt.

But no butt kicking was necessary because the smoke was coming from a fire burning in the garbage can outside in the driveway. The back door had been left open and was swinging away against the wind, letting the smoke blow into the house.

Aislin lowered her knife. “Oh, thank God. For a second, I thought the house was burning down or something” But I was not relieved. “Yeah, but who started the fire?” She shrugged. “I don’t know…maybe some kids who were bored?”

“Maybe.” But her answer didn’t feel right.

We crept over to the door, watching the fire blaze against the night.

Something was wrong.

I could feel it.

The sight of the fire was setting off something inside me and I couldn’t stop thinking about the vision I had right after I was bit by the vampire; the chaos in the streets, the fires, Stephan. You need to prepare yourself, my father had said.

“Do you have a fire extinguisher?” Aislin asked.

I pointed to the cupboard below the kitchen sink, but my eyes stayed on the fire. “It’s under there.” Moments later, Aislin was putting out the fire with a satisfied look rising on her face when she finished. “There, fire problem all taken care of.”

I forced a smile as she went back into the house and put the extinguisher back in the cupboard.

“Something’s not right,” I muttered.

Something definitely wasn’t right.

Chapter 36

Aislin and I went back to the living room and Aislin started searching the internet, trying to find more details on her spell, while I read through the Foreseer’s book, trying to figure out what the ring on my finger was for, even though I had no idea if it even had anything to do with Foreseers.

But it was hard to concentrate when I couldn’t stop thinking about the fire. It felt like it was an omen or something—a warning that something bad lay ahead for all of us. But I couldn’t figure out how—I had changed the vision back to what it was. The world was not supposed to end anymore.

It seemed like hours ticked by before I heard the front door open and Alex and Laylen walked inside. They looked strange, like they had been crying or something.

“Are you two okay?” I asked, staring at their reddened eyes.

Laylen dropped down on the sofa between Aislin and me and put an arm around each of us. “Yeah, we’re fine. Are you two okay?”

I nodded, giving Laylen a peculiar look. “You’re not having problems again, are you?” I whispered, leaning into him. “With your blood thirst, I mean.”

He shook his head and squeezed my shoulder. “No, I’m fine, I promise. Alex and I…we just needed to talk about something.”

He wasn’t telling me something—I could tell, but before I could ask, Alex interrupted.

“Hey, come with me for a moment.” He held out his hand to me. “There’s something I need to talk to you about.” I looked at Laylen, but he avoided my eyes. So I took Alex’s hand and he helped me to my feet.

“You put that thing on?” he asked, noticing the ring on my finger.

I sighed. “I wanted to see if it would do something if I did…it didn’t.”

He let out a frustrated breath, but didn’t say anything. I mean, what would he say? That I needed to be careful and not risk my life like that?

He led me up to my room and shut the door behind us. It was dark, but he didn’t flip the light on, nor did he say anything. He just stood there, leaning against the door, and it was driving me crazy because I could feel his gaze on me, sparkling across my skin.

Finally, I clicked the lamp on.

“So, where did you and Laylen go?” I sat down on my bed.

He shrugged, his eyes locked on me. “I just needed to talk to him about something.”

“So are you two friends again, then?”

He stepped away from the door and sat down next me. “I guess so.” He shrugged. “Well, at least I don’t think we’ll be beating each other up anytime soon.” He let out a loud breath and dragged his fingers through his dark brown messy and in-an-intentional-way hair. “There was just something really important I needed to talk to him about.”

“It’s not bad, is it?” I asked, picking up a weird vibe from him.

He shook his head, but something in his eyes made my stomach clench. “No, it’s not bad.” He swept a strand of my hair out of my face and I tensed, remembering how he did the same thing in the vision, right before we died. “It’s good…everything will be alright.”

My heart skipped a beat, and not in a good way. It skipped a beat in fear, because those were the words he whispered to me in the vision.

“They will?” I asked in a shaky voice. “How do you know?”

He traced the fresh cut on the palm of his hand—the one leftover from our most recent Blood Promise. “I just do.”

“Alex,” I choked. “What did you say during the Blood Promise?”

He gave me a soft smile. “I’ll tell you tomorrow okay? But right now I just want to lay here with you and think about something else besides the end-of-the-world.” How was I supposed to respond to that? “Okay.” Yeah, I guess that worked.

We lay down on my bed, face-to-face, not quite touching, but it was enough for the sparks to flow between us and connect us with an invisible bond.

How could something that felt so good be so wrong?

“I’ll leave before it gets too bad,” he said, sensing my worry.

I nodded. “Okay.”

And then we just lay there, watching one another, letting the silence fade away our worries, until my eyelids grew heavy and I drifted away into a peaceful dream of kisses, warmth, and beautiful green eyes.

Chapter 37

I awoke to an empty room. Alex apparently had kept his word and left when things got bad. I hadn’t even felt any weakness, but I guess my sleeping blocked it out. I felt good, actually, for the first time in a while.

I felt charged, like my peaceful dream had reenergized my body.

My stomach let out a growl. Apparently it wanted to be reenergized too.

I got to my feet and padded to my bedroom door. The house was quiet, so I assumed everyone was asleep. As I stepped out into the hall, I noticed something wasn’t right. I couldn’t quite place my finger on what it was, only that something was off…or missing maybe.

I shook off the feeling and tiptoed downstairs, giving a quick glance into the living room where Alex usually slept.

But the couch was empty.

I scratched my head and started to turn away. Maybe he was sleeping in one of the guest rooms, but something caught my eye that made me pause.

An envelope with my name printed on it lay on the table.

Something about it made my stomach drop. I flipped on the light and stared at it for a while, too afraid to open it. Finally, with shaking hands I picked it up, tore it open, and took out the folded piece of paper inside it.

I took an unsteady breath and unfolded the paper.

Gemma

I know you may not understand why I need to leave, but I need you to try. I don’t believe that your end comes when you think. I believe there is another way, and I’m going to do whatever it takes to find it. But I can’t do it while I’m around you. I can’t keep hiding what I feel, but if I let it all out, I know it will be the end for both of us. And I can’t let that happen.

I will always save you, Gemma, I just need you to hang on until I do.

Alex

The letter slipped from my fingers and floated to the floor like a feather as I stood there, stunned.

I will always save you.

He had said this to me once before, in a dream. But how could he leave without saying anything to anyone. And then it dawned on me, and I took off up the stairs. Without bothering to knock, I barged into the room where Laylen slept and turned on the lights.

He jumped out of bed, startled by my appearance and blinked at me with tired eyes.

“What the heck are you doing?” he asked, rubbing the tiredness from his eyes.

“Please tell me you didn’t know,” I said, trying to stay as calm as possible.

His face fell. He knew.

“But you’re supposed to tell me everything,” I said in an alarming high-pitch voice. “We tell each other everything.” He sighed and ran his fingers through his blond hair, which was sticking up in all kinds of directions. “I couldn’t tell you this.”

I walked into the room and sank down on the foot of the bed. “Why not?”

“Because I agreed with him.” He sat down next to me.

“He needed to leave…it was too hard for him to keep turning off what he felt for you.” He wrapped his arm around my shoulder and pulled me against his bare chest. “If he stuck around, you two would end up killing one another.”

“But he thinks he can find a way to save me,” I whispered.

“At least that’s what he said in the note.” Laylen pulled me tighter against him. “And maybe he will.”

I twisted the ring on my finger—my supposed loophole.

My heart was breaking. I got where Alex was coming from. I got that our feelings for one another were getting harder and harder to control. But it didn’t make the empty void inside my heart feel any better about him leaving.

He left.

I can’t believe he left.

I turned over my hand and stared at the fresh cut. “Do you know what he promised me?” I asked, glancing up at Laylen.

Laylen nodded. “He promised you everything would be alright…and maybe it will.”

“Maybe,” I said, but the hole in my heart told me otherwise.

We sat there in the quiet, and I could feel the hole in my heart growing bigger with each passing moment.

“He told me to keep an eye on you,” Laylen finally said.

“While he was gone.”

“I don’t need to be watched,” I said. “I can take care of myself.”

“Yeah, you can, but you’re also precious cargo,” he tried to joke. “And precious cargo needs to be taken care of.”

“I am not precious cargo.” I frowned more at myself than at him and I could feel this icky bitter feeling building up inside me. “I’m destructive…without me, there would be no star, and therefore, there would be no problems.” He pulled away from me so he could look me in the eye.

“That’s why he told me to keep an eye on you…he didn’t want you to sink into this sad pit of despair because he was gone…You need to keep going—we need to find a way to save you.”

“Why does everyone want to save me?” I asked. “And what about Alex—he needs to be saved just as much as I do.”

“Everyone wants to save you because you’re worth saving, Gemma,” Laylen said. “Haven’t you figured that out yet?”

I shook my head as tears dripped down my cheeks. I wanted to say something, but there were no words, so instead I leaned my head on his shoulder and cried until I was too tired to keep my eyes open. Then I went back to my bedroom and drifted to sleep, dreaming of fires, stars, and the missing pieces of my heart.

Chapter 38

I woke up to a loud bang that rocked the house. I jumped from my bed, my eyes wildly scanning my surroundings. My room was stilled fill with the lingering nighttime darkness, and there was a glow from the outside that I assumed was the rising sun.

“What the hell was that?” I mumbled to myself, my heart knocking in my chest. I hurried out into the hall and immediately I realized something was wrong.

The door to my mom’s bedroom was open.

It was never open.

My body shook as I made my way to the open door and glanced inside the semi-dark room. Then my world crashed to the floor. She was gone. My mom was gone. Nothing remained but the chains, which looked like they had been melted away at the cuffs.

“No…” I shook my head. “No, how did she…” And then I smelt it. The scent of flowers and freshly fall en rain.

I slowly turned around and was met by a pair of golden eyes.

“You’re dead,” I stuttered, pinching myself to make sure I was awake.

It stung.

Nicholas raised his eyebrows. “Am I?” He examined his arms over. “Wow! I look really good even for a dead guy.”

“N-no.” I shook my head, backing into the empty room where my mother should be, but wasn’t. “This can’t be happening.”

Nicholas walked toward me, his hands behind his back.

“I think you always kind of knew I wasn’t dead…I mean, you have seen me.”

“But that was a nightmare,” I said in an unsteady voice.

He cocked an eyebrow at me. “Was it?”

“How…I don’t…” Get it together. “How are you even here? You shouldn’t be here?”

“Shouldn’t I?” For a moment, he looked as confused as I felt, but the look quickly erased. “I mean, I guess technically I shouldn’t be here, being dead and all, yet here I am.”

“So, you are dead?” I braced a hand on the bed to keep from coll apsing to the floor. “How can I still see you then?” He shrugged, grinning. “Just another amazing thing about you, I guess.”

Great. This was the last thing I needed right now. An annoying faerie ghost haunting me. “Okay, so why are you here?”

“Because you changed everything,” he said simply, shoving his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “You brought me back.”

I gaped at him. “How?”

“By changing the vision.”

“But I was supposed to change it…It’s what it was supposed to be.”

He took another step toward me and I suddenly felt threatened. “Not that vision. The other one; the one where I was supposed to take you to Stephan.”

My jaw nearly dropped to the floor and I sat down on the bed because my legs would no longer hold me up. “But I…” I was speechless. Never did it occur to me that my father erasing my past would shift future events. Had he known that it would happen?

“So what?” I asked. “Now I’m stuck with you.” His grin darkened. “Well, you are responsible for my death, aren’t you? I mean, if it wasn’t for you changing things, I would never have been in that car to begin with.” A guilty knot wove its way into my stomach. “I’m sorry…I didn’t know.”

“Doesn’t matter.” He shrugged. “Regardless, you’re still stuck with me.”

I sank down on the bed, staring at the chains which once held my mom. And now she was gone. Where did she go?

“Don’t worry,” Nicholas said. “I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to help you.”

“You left the note on my bed, didn’t you?” I said. “And you were that annoying talk-show host voice, weren’t you?” He nodded. “It was the only way I could communicate with you.”

“But, I can see you now.”

“Yes, but you weren’t wearing that thing.” He pointed to the ring on my finger.

I raised my hand in front of me, staring at the violet gemmed ring enclosed around my finger. “This is why I can suddenly see you?”

He tapped the ring on my finger. “It’s the orbis of silent or ring of the dead…it gives you the sight of seeing the dead.”

“Why would he give this to me?” I stared down at the ring.

“How is seeing the dead my loophole?”

He shrugged, sitting down next to me and I tried not to cringe from his closeness. I mean, the alive Nicholas freaked me out enough, but the dead Nicholas…well, it was beyond creepy.

I had a feeling there was more to his story—that he knew more about the ring then he was letting on. Too bad Blood Promises didn’t last after death because now getting the truth out of him was going to be like pulling teeth.

Nicholas suddenly smirked at the empty chains that once held my mom. “You have such a bumpy road ahead, and you don’t even know it.”

I pointed at the chains. “Do you know where she went?” His golden eyes twinkled in the low light of the room.

“Perhaps.”

I tried to keep my cool. “Can you please tell me?” He gestured at the window. “The answer is out there.” I stared at the window, not wanting to look, frightened about what I would see.

“Go ahead.” He was enjoying this way too much. “Go see the damage you’ve caused.”

I took a deep breath and slowly walked toward the window, my knees knocking together with each step. My palms covered with sweat as I pulled back the curtain.

Garbage cans burned wildly in the streets. A fire lit up the sky. In the next door neighbor’s yard, a vampire was feeding off a human, right out in the open, as if it didn’t matter, as if all the rules had changed.

I whirled back to Nicholas. “What is this?”

“What did you think was going to happen? That you could change the events of your life and everything would be okay? That you could mess around with visions and everything would be fine.”

My father knew this was going to happen. My father had seen it coming. He tried to show me that there were going to be rough times ahead.

You need to prepare yourself.

“ But, why would this happen just from me changing one event of my life?” I asked, motioning at the window were fires blazed vibrantly just outside it. “How could it lead to all this.”

“Don’t you remember the butterfly effect?” he asked.

“This all happened because I never handed you over to Stephan that day, therefore he had to work harder to try and capture you. So he has been igniting the Mark of Malefiscus on the foll owers of Malefiscus—something he was going to originally do when the portal opened. He did it so they can help him capture you…And thanks to Stephan and his memory tampering abilities, they think they’ve been born with the mark.” He gestured at the window. “They think this is the way things are supposed to be.”

“But this witch, Medea, she said they were waiting for Stephan to perfect the Mark of Immortality before they started hurting people.” I glanced at the window, out at the chaos. “Does that mean he’s perfected it?” Nicholas smiled, but didn’t answer.

“So can we fix it?” I asked in a panic stricken voice. “Can we make all the madness out there stop?”

He grinned. “Perhaps...” He glanced at the ring on my finger, and again I assumed he knew more than he was letting on. “But as of now every single creature marked with the Mark of Malefiscus—which is quite a lot thanks to you shifting everything—is roaming the streets.” He brushed his finger across the mark on his skin. “My mark is useless, though, since I am dead.”

Shaking my head, I sank to the floor, wishing desperately that Alex was here.

“And what if we can’t?” I asked, hugging my knees to my chest.

The only answer I got was the fire crackling in the streets.

Jessica Sorensen lives with her husband and three kids in the snowy mountains of Wyoming, where she spends most of her time reading, writing, and hanging out with her family.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11