Rewind (Vanish Book Three) (10 page)

I placed my hand on her
forehead; I needed her to forget everything. The only thing I would
let her remember, was her name.

When she woke up, she stared
at me. Her gaze showed no hate, no fear, no
love—nothing.

“
Who are you?”

“
The more important question
is, who are you?” I said. “How do you want to lead your
life?”

“
I—I don’t know.”

“
Your name is Ann, and you
want to help people. There is an evil woman named Debby, you should
avoid her at all costs. More than that, you need to find what makes
you happy in life. You’ve just been given a second chance—something
a lot of people never get. So, how are you going to use
it?”

“
I don’t remember anything.
I don’t remember what I did or why I need a second chance, but I’m
sorry. Who are you? An angel?”

I stopped and thought for a moment. If
Ann was going to do better, maybe she deserved to live a good life,
a life where she didn’t have a dream that would hurt so many
people.

“
Yes, I’m an angel. I’ll
come to see you from time to time, and when I do… you better be
making the best of this.”

“
I will I promise, but what
am I supposed to do?”

“
Try your best to lead a
life that you can be proud of. Don’t do things that are good for
you, but bad for others. It’s okay to make yourself happy, but you
can’t hurt other people in the process.”

“
Thank you,” she
said.

“
No problem, I will be
back,” I said it not as a threat, but a promise. I could forgive
what she had done, not because she deserved it, or because she
decided to change on her own, but because she now had no idea what
she had done. “One more thing, you tell no one about what you’ve
seen, not a word, got it?”

“
I’ll never
tell.”

“
Go back to sleep,” I said
as I imagined Grace’s house. I Imagined the couch, and Dante
sitting there waiting for me to return. Soon blue and green swirls
surrounded me, and no more than a second later, I was
gone.

“
What happened?” Dante
demanded the second I appeared.

“
We have one less person to
worry about. Not only did I make Ann forget, I told her she was a
good person, and she needed to start acting like one. She thought I
was an angel,” I smiled.

“
That’s great, but now you
need to get some sleep.”

“
Yeah, I think you’re
right.”

I didn’t have a concrete
plan in mind. I probably should have, but on the bright side, I had
a dream about what would happen tomorrow.

It was glorious; thousands of
imprisoned people around the world were set free. We took down the
Alliance, but the dream cut off in a pivotal scene.

I woke up covered in sweat.
I was sprawled out across the couch, and Dante was lying on the
floor, looking uncomfortable. I turned over and stared at him for a
few moments. The dream I had was a magnificent dream and a horrific
nightmare all rolled into one. It felt as if, second by second, the
details disappeared, and soon I was left with nothing. It was
strange; I should have remembered, but I’d had dreams before where
I’d forgotten them almost immediately after I’d woken up. This was
different; it felt like this dream should have been burned into my
brain.

I shrugged it off and sat there. That’s
when I realized, I was sitting there with my hand on my forehead.
Did I make myself forget? I wouldn’t think that would be possible,
but if it was, it was nice to know for future reference.

Dante turned over and looked up at me
with half-opened eyes. He smiled and for a moment, I got the same
feeling I’d had many times before. I wanted to run; I wanted to be
normal, and I wanted to be with him.

“
What time is it?” he
yawned.

“
I don’t know, but I don’t
think I can fall back asleep.”

“
Why?”

“
I had a nightmare,” I said,
embarrassed. He got up and sat next to me on the couch. I had the
only blanket, and as he sat, I threw it over him.

“
What was it
about?”

“
The Alliance, but I don’t
remember what happened.”

“
I’ll go get you some water
and see what time it is.” He was trying not to sound as nervous as
he looked. I forgot about his dreams of us; he knew my dreams
always meant something, and now we were both worried.

He came back in with two glasses of
water. He sat across from me and just stared. It looked as if he
was concentrating on something.

“
What?” I asked when I
couldn’t handle it anymore.

“
It’s only three, are you
sure you can’t go back to sleep?” he said as he snapped out of
it.

“
No, but you can go back to
sleep if you want. Here take the couch,” I offered as I got
up.

“
No, I’m fine. I’ll stay up
with you.”

“
Okay,” I smiled as I got
back under the blanket.

“
So, what is your absolute
favorite thing to do? Before everything happened, I
mean.”

“
I would have to say hanging
out with you—well and Grace obviously, how about you?” I
wondered.

“
Well, lately, dreaming.
I’ve been having some crazy dreams—most of them were about you. Us
playing in my backyard, we couldn’t have been much older than ten.
I just don’t understand why I’m having these dreams.”

“
I have a theory.” It was a
theory that I just came up with. In my mind, there were two
Dante’s, but now I wholeheartedly believed that there was only one.
“Dante’s ghost came to me the other day. He said the future no
longer exists. I mean, there will be a future, just not the one
that I came from. So if that’s true, that means Dante never died, I
think his ghost—“

“
You think… you think that
he’s a part of me now?”

I sighed. I didn’t know how else to
explain it, “basically, yeah.”

“
Wow, so I guess we’ve
already been friends….”

“
In the best of my memories
and in your dreams, yes,” I said. “But it’s alright if you still
want to be only friends.”

He looked down, “okay.”

“
So, how do you think
tomorrow’s going to go? I’m a little concerned,” I
admitted.

“
I don’t know. I have no
idea what to imagine. My dreams have helped me in other aspects of
this, but I can’t even imagine how the Alliance is when they’re
prepared and determined enough to get something.”

“
Yeah, I don’t know what to
expect either; I don’t think any of us do.”

We sat there for a while, huddled under
the blanket together, even though it was no colder than sixty
degrees Fahrenheit. After a while, Dante fell asleep, and I was
left alone with my thoughts.

I looked toward the window;
the sun was just about to come up. I saw something blur past it.
Dante was fast asleep next to me, and I didn’t want to bother him,
so I got up and looked out the peep hole. I saw nothing. I looked
for a few more seconds and finally, saw someone walking around the
front yard. It was a girl with long, flowing brunette hair; she
wore a dress that was torn near the bottom. She looked like she
couldn’t possibly be any trouble. In fact, she looked like she
might be in trouble.

I opened the door slowly, trying not to
wake Dante. When she saw me, she stopped dead in her tracks and
stared at me. I went closer to her; she looked
frightened.

“
Are you okay?” I
asked.

“
Yes, but you’re not,” she
said in a small, sweet, but disturbingly truthful voice.

“
What do you mean?” I
wondered.

“
You’re not the only one who
can see things. I can see your future; I can see your present. I
can see you whenever I want to, I see everything.” She looked
insane. Her eyes were wide, and she never blinked. Her pale blue
eyes were burning into mine; it was uncomfortable to say the
least.

“
So…” I began to
question.

“
I was recruited by the
Alliance when I was only fifteen. They had a very specific
assignment for me, and my powers have been developed to serve that
purpose and that purpose only.”

“
So what was your
assignment?”

“
To watch you, the Alliance
isn’t all seeing, but I am. I’ve been hired to catch you, Scarlett
Summers.”

“
So why are you telling me
all this?” I asked. I wasn’t quite afraid, if her only power was to
watch me, then this was a fight I knew I could win.

“
I thought it was only fair,
kind of a last request that you didn’t get to choose.” Before she
even finished the sentence, she lunged at me. I ran down the
street, but I couldn’t concentrate enough to go invisible. I
couldn’t concentrate enough to see if Dante’s power would work for
me again, either. I ran around the corner and found a patch of
woods to hide in, but I knew I couldn’t hide. I had just enough
time to concentrate on going invisible, and once I was, I walked
out of the woods.

She was standing right in
front of me, staring deep into my soul, it seemed. There was no way
she could see me, so I concentrated on not giving myself away. Not
making a sound, not moving the smallest speck of dirt on the
ground. She started laughing, and I looked over
curiously.

“
Oh, Scarlett, did you not
hear me? I see everything.” She ran towards me at an incredible
speed. I became visible, not on purpose; I had been taken by
surprise, and now I was frightened.

I ran across the street,
and she followed behind me. It felt like I was running in slow
motion, and she wasn’t far behind me. I heard a car speeding toward
us,
reinforcements
. They must have been going at least seventy miles per hour,
and I was right; they were coming to help, not her, but me. I felt
a gust of wind as the car sped past me. I heard a loud sound as her
body met the front of the car, I couldn’t believe it, but it was
even louder when she hit the ground. She rolled five feet, leaving
a trail of blood behind her. I stared at her lifeless body, and
when I could finally look away, I knew exactly who had saved
me.

Dante got out of the car,
looking shaken. He ran over to me and put his arms around me.
Without warning, tears filled up my eyes, and I pressed my face
into his chest. I couldn’t hold back my sobs, but he didn’t care;
he stared ahead at the girl he just killed.

“
They know—they know we’re
coming,” I mumbled into his chest.

“
What?”

“
That girl, she could see my
future; she could see what I was doing at any point in time, and
she was coming for me.”

“
We need to get out of here;
I’m sure the police will be coming soon.”

“
You’re right,” I agreed.
“Maybe we should put your car in the garage.”

When we got back to Grace’s,
she and Rose were already awake. They were getting ready for the
day. I was starting to get really nervous. I pulled Dante
aside.

“
I don’t know about this,” I
sighed. He waited for me to continue. “I mean, maybe we should find
more people, or find some information that could help us, we need
to be prepared.”

“
I think you’re right, but
we can’t wait too long.”

“
We need to tell Rose and
Grace.”

After I told them, they both took a
deep breath. Then Dante’s phone rang.

“
Oh, hey Cooper,” Dante said
as he answered. “Okay, we’ll see you guys in a while.”

“
Dante,” I
whispered. He looked over. “You should ask them if they can pick up
Allison on the way, actually…” I said as I stopped to
think,
Annabelle
. We should have her come, too, the only problem—I didn’t
know her number.

“
Do you think you could pick
someone up on the way?” Dante asked. “Her name is Allison. I’ll
call her and let her know, and if she says no, I’ll call you. Yeah
her address is—”

He continued talking, but I
was transfixed by the story on the news. A classroom of students
and the substitute teacher had not been seen or heard from
since…
Thursday.
I
kept watching, hoping, praying that it wasn’t Sunny Bay High
School, but it was.

Officials and the principal
tried to get ahold of the families, but they could not reach a
single one. Apparently, it was one of the weirdest things any of
the reporters—and probably the police—had ever heard of.
There I go, getting myself into trouble again,
getting all of these people into trouble, and now it’s on the news.
Did I learn nothing the last time?

“
Dante,” I whispered. I
wasn’t sure if he heard me, it was barely audible. “Dante,” I said
a little louder.

“
What?”

“
Remember the first time you
saw me invisible?” I said, without a hint of emotion as I stared
wide-eyed at the TV.

“
Yeah, at
school….”