That all came out in one long, drawn out breath, and I knew if I was actually going to answer her before she started talking again, I’d have to act quickly. “You may know more than I do,” I admitted. “My parents won’t tell me much.” I didn’t tell her about the strange man downstairs. Not yet, anyway. “Do you know what happened to Drew?”
“I know what everyone is saying. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but every single one of her friends that was with he swears it’s the truth. Except for maybe your sis because she’s not here. She’s not there, right?”
“No, she’s at my grandma’s.” That much I did believe, though I wasn’t sure why.
“Well, I guess Drew told her parents she was going to spend the night at her friend Sidney Cox’s house last night, but instead they all went out somewhere.” I was positive I knew what Lucy would say next. The Eidolon Festival. But, when the next sentence came out of her mouth, I felt more confused than ever. “I guess they drove off somewhere where you can go rock climbing, and Drew fell. They said she somehow managed to slice her neck open on a rock, and before they could get her to the hospital, she bled to death. Isn’t that just horrible? Can you imagine watching your friend bleed out like that? Poor Drew. She was always so… pretty.”
I had so many questions, I couldn’t even think about the fact that Lucy couldn’t think of any better adjectives than “pretty” to describe the dead girl. Not “nice” or “cheerful,” but “pretty.” Instead of dwelling on that, I asked, “Are you sure that’s what happened, Luce?” I didn’t even know where one went to rock climb around here, not to mention I knew for a fact that my sister had been planning to go to that Eidolon Festival the night before. Why would she change her mind?
“I don’t know,” Lucy replied. “That’s just what everyone is saying. Maybe you should call your sister and ask. All of her friends are super serious that that’s how Drew died. Even Jack. My brother saw him this morning.”
Again, I had a ton of questions. “Where? Why would Jack be out on Thanksgiving morning after his friend died?”
“I’m not sure,” Lucy admitted, “but he said he ran into him on his jog in the park.”
I literally scratched my head, thinking maybe I should call Jack. The whole time my sister was dating him, we were very close. He was like a big brother to me. He had to be very upset about what had happened to Drew.
“Daniel said that he looked like he was in shock and hadn’t gotten much sleep.”
“I can imagine,” I said. Lucy was one of my very best friends in the world, and I desperately wanted to tell her that I had some suspicions of my own, but I didn’t think telling her over the phone was a good idea. She might need to see my face to know some of this stuff wasn’t made up. And it was a holiday, after all, so neither one of us could stay on the phone too long.
“I called Em whallago, while I was waiting for you to call me back, and she didn’t know anything. Not sure she cared either.” That last part was an aside. It wasn’t that Em wouldn’t care that someone had died, but she had a tough time relating to other people and understanding emotions.
“Listen, Luce, I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, but there are a few things I wanna talk to you about. I think it would be better if we could talk in person, though.” The sound of an engine out front caught my attention, and I walked to the window as quickly as I could without shaking the floor. I expected to see Aaron leaving, but instead, another motorcycle had pulled up out front and a very large man, also dressed in black, killed the engine and swung his leg over the side. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, and all I could see from my second-story window was a mass of disheveled, curly, dark hair.
“Oh, my goodness. What is it, Cassidy?” Lucy was asking. “You can’t keep secrets like that from me.”
“I won’t for long,” I promised. “It’s probably nothing.” The words came out of my mouth as this large man began to saunter toward my front door. It was definitely something.
I was just about to tell her I had to go when I heard her mother’s voice in the background shouting that she needed to get off of the phone. Lucy made a sound like a frustrated water buffalo. “I gotta go.”
“Okay. Maybe we can get together this weekend?”
“We better, or else you’re spilling over Skype, girl.”
“Okay,” I said again. “Talk to you later.”
Lucy hung up, and I stopped staring out the window at two empty motorcycles. Frustrated, I sat down at my desk. I felt like I needed to get some of this information down on paper so I could see it and start piecing a few things together. I pulled out an old notebook I sometimes used as a journal and wrote the following:
“Cadence said she was going to the Eidolon Festival at 3:00 AM the night before Thanksgiving. Who was going with her? Drew, Jack, Sidney, Taylor, Jon, and Kash. Leaving from Drew’s house.
“Wednesday night, Cadence arrived home around 4:30. Heard a man in her room. Aaron? Footsteps on the roof. He went out her bedroom window in a flash. Sports car out front with purple-haired woman. Cadence is gone. My parents said she went to my grandma’s house to rest because Drew was hurt.
“Thursday morning, Aaron shows up at our house. Parents say Drew has died. Cadence is at my grandma’s house. Aaron used to work with my grandma—and maybe my grandpa?? Another dude is downstairs now. Tall guy, broad shoulders, unruly hair. Who is this person? Why did my mom say the word ‘Transformation’? What is up with my sister?”
I sat for a few minutes, trying to decide if I’d missed anything. Then, I remembered another snippet from the conversation downstairs and wrote, “Who is Jamie and what process does he use to do whatever he does?”
Another few moments passed by while I pondered my notes. I couldn’t think of anything else, so I slipped the notebook back into a stack of books where it was very unlikely anyone would ever find it. Just as I was about to plunk myself on the bed, I heard footsteps on the stairs and prayed it was one of my parents and not a strange man dressed in black.
There was a light rapping on my door, and I knew from the familiar sound it was my mom. “Come in,” I said, standing and taking a few steps toward the door.
Mom looked a little older now than she had just the day before. I wasn’t sure if it was due to the events of earlier that morning or the discussion she’d just had with the fellows downstairs. But she forced a smile as she entered the room and took a seat on my bed, gesturing for me to join her. “How are you, honey?”
I sat down beside her, and my mom wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “I’m okay,” I said, though my voice sounded weak. “Just confused.” I realized I’d been so preoccupied with worry over my sister that I hadn’t really given much thought to what had happened to poor Drew yet.
As if reading my mind, Mom said, “Cadence will be fine, honey. It’s just going to take her a little while to… adjust to this. Life without Drew.” She added that last sentence quickly, as if there could be something else she’d need to adjust to.
I nodded but didn’t say anything yet. There were so many questions swirling around in my head, but I didn’t feel like my parents wanted me to know as much as they did. Why else would they have sent me out of the room so they could talk to Mr. Suspicious? I didn’t understand all of the secrets. It wasn’t like my parents not to tell me what was going on.
My mom’s voice cut through my thoughts. “There is someone downstairs I’d like for you to meet.”
I looked up at her then, thinking it must be Weird Guy Number Two. “Who?” was all I could manage.
“He’s a doctor, Cassidy, and he was there last night, er, this morning when they brought Drew into the hospital. I think he can help answer some of your questions.”
My eyebrows knit together. “He’s a doctor?” My mom didn’t know I’d seen the burly man pull up on a motorcycle. Granted, I was looking down at him from two stories above, but he didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever seen before.
She nodded. “Yes. Why don’t you come downstairs and have a little chat with him? He’s really nice. I think you’ll like him. His name is Dr. Elliott Sanderson.”
Cadence was glowing, holding both of her babies, one in each arm. I smiled at her and then focused on Josephina. She wasn’t crying now, but her little face was wrinkled as if she might burst into tears at any moment. Aaron had his hand on her back, beaming with pride as he looked at his little family. Jamie and another Healer, Ona, were cleaning up a tray table, but I caught his eye, and he winked at me. I hoped he could tell how grateful I was. If it wasn’t for him and his life saving blue magical healing powers, not to mention his medical skills, Cadence never would’ve come back to life.“Where’s my new favorite lil girl?” Elliott asked beside me.“Hey! I’m your lil girl. You’re going to have to think of something else to call her.” I threw an elbow at him.“Oh, I’m just teasing,” Elliott assured me. “Still, she is definitely lil. And she is my girl.”“I&rsqu
I’ll never forget the day my sister died. Even now, eight months later, sitting outside of Jamie’s operating room with Brandon’s hand in mine, every time I think about what happened that day, I get tears in my eyes. So many things could’ve gone differently, if only one of us would’ve made a different choice. I’ve spent a lot of time reflecting on what I could’ve done differently myself that day, and even though everyone tells me there’s no point in dwelling on it, what’s done is done, it still haunts me sometimes when I’m trying to fall asleep at night, when I can so vividly see Cadence hanging there in the air before she plummeted to the ground, the whoosh of power that left my hand just missing its mark.The new Hunter Leader is a guy named Daniel Bower. He came in from California a few months ago. He’s awesome. I’ve known him for a while. He’s the one who helped capture Professor Stewart after th
I continued to beg and plead with her to come back to us. At fifteen minutes, Scarlet’s whispers were loud enough for me to detect what she was saying to Cale. “How long will he give it?”“I don’t know.” Cale seemed agitated and upset, certainly more connected to my sister than Scarlet. “Not yet.”“Please... Cadey, please.” I felt as far and as deep as I could, thinking about how I’d had to go so very far into her brain to plant that dream. The clock continued to tick. Cadence still wasn’t breathing, and Jamie began to sound desperate. At twenty-five minutes, when Jamie said “thirty,” his voice broke. He knew that the chances of her coming back to us now, after this long, were minute at best. He couldn’t give up, though. We couldn’t give up.Aaron blew two breaths of air into my sister’s lungs, and Jamie started counting again.Something was diff
After Aaron finally moved forward, I followed, staying back a little bit. I didn’t want to see her like that. I had never seen a person’s body after they’ve fallen that far, but I could imagine what it was like.Only when I finally did take a few hesitant steps around the trees, Brandon’s hands on my shoulders, she didn’t look like I expected her to at all.Cadence was lying flat on the ground with her hands folded over her abdomen, sort of like Snow White. Her feet were out straight, and her hair was blown out around her. She looked absolutely beautiful. And still. So very, very still.Jamie was doing chest compressions, and when it was time to breathe, Aaron did that for my sister. Some sort of automatic pilot must’ve turned on for him because his movements were very robotic. Jamie would say thirty, and Aaron would breathe into my sister’s open mouth twice before Jamie started counting again.Tears were rolling
“No!” My scream echoed across the mountainside as I watched in horror as my sister fell. I cannot guide what I cannot see, and I didn’t have a chance to get a grip on her before she plummeted. My hands shot out in her direction, but the surge of power I’d sent to grab her went over her head. I saw a streak of blue do the same and knew Jamie had missed as well.Fumbling through Cadence’s stream of consciousness, I tried again, hoping I’d be able to figure out how to get my powers around her before she hit the ground, but she was moving too fast, and without my eyes on her, I wouldn’t be able to get a grip.Part of me wanted to at least jump into her head, to be with her, to let her know she was okay, but then, the thought of what she was about to endure, when she hit the tops of the trees and then cascaded down through them to the earth, I couldn’t bear the thought, and I knew she wouldn’t want me to see it.I
“Brandon!” I shouted, floating over to where he had disappeared. He didn’t answer, and I realized he must’ve fallen all the way in. “Dang it.” I looked around the battlefield. I knew he was safe down there, but I hated that he was in that miserable place. Cadence was firing at Daunator now while Christian moved in, to place the grenade, I assumed, so I thought perhaps she’d be safe for a few minutes. I decided to help Brandon.“Are you all right?” I asked, using my telepathy.“Thank goodness,” he thought, probably not even to me. “Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just really dark in here.”“I know. Hold on, and I’ll get you out.”“If I hold on, won’t it be harder for you to get me out?”“All right smarty pants.” I needed to focus all of my energy if I was going to do this