Rewind (Vanish Book Three) (6 page)

“
We’ll have to figure
something out.”

He was quiet for a while, just
following me as I examined everything in the house. I went to her
mother’s room; it was spotless. She had a book shelf, everything
was in alphabetical order, and I couldn’t find a single thing out
of place. Her bed was made; it almost seemed as though no one had
been here for a while.

We went back to Grace’s room and sat on
the bed. The phone rang, and I jumped. I saw the answering machine
in the kitchen and went to go listen.

“
Grace, I know you’re not
home from school yet, but I’m going on a business trip…” she
trailed off. “I don’t know when I’ll be home, a week… maybe longer.
I’m going home right now to leave you some money. I would go after
you’ll be home from school, but I have to leave in an hour. Take
care of yourself. If you need anything call your father or Aunt
Alex, okay? I love you.”

“
We have to hide,” I said,
startled.

I ran to the window we came
in through and made sure it was just as it was before we got here.
Then, I made sure nothing was moved—by the looks of her mom’s room,
she would notice the smallest thing out of place. Then we went into
Grace’s room and hid under the bed. It was the best place to hide;
it was closest to the front door and the kitchen, so we’d hear when
she left.

As I lay there next to
Dante, I couldn’t help but feel like I was in the future again. The
only difference—he didn’t care about me. We heard the front door
unlock and open. Even though I knew I was far enough under the bed
not to be seen, I moved a little closer to him. Within just two
minutes, she was back out the front door. I climbed out from under
the bed, but Dante stayed under the bed for a minute.

“
What are you doing?” I
wondered.

“
I found something,” he
replied.

He crawled out with a book in his
hands; it looked old, and there was no title. He opened to the
first page; the pages were brown as if they had been dipped in
coffee.

“
What is this?” I said,
breathless.

“
It looks like it’s about
powers.”

“
Why would Grace have
this?”

Chapter 6:
Paralyze

I continued going through
every drawer. I knew it was an invasion of privacy, but I hoped for
a clue. A clue to why someone would want to hurt her, to why she
had that book—anything. Dante kept his eyes glued to the book, page
after page, he kept reading.

Then he mumbled something like,
“sharing powers is a rare and meaningful thing.” He kept
reading.

“
Hey, Grace will be home
soon. We need to figure out what we’re going to do.”

“
Alright, but later I think
I need to go visit Allison,” he sighed.

“
Why?” I asked,
disappointed.

“
I just need to, but I’ll
wait until after we talk to Grace.”

“
Promise you’ll come back?”
I said, trying not to sound desperate.

“
I promise,” he smiled and
for an instant, I saw a tiny glimpse of the Dante I used to
know.

We sat around waiting. Two
o’clock turned into three, and by that time we decided it would be
best if we waited behind the basement door. We figured it would be
better to let her get home and settled and listen to the voicemail
from her mom. It was about three thirty when we heard the front
door open. She walked into the kitchen and dropped her bag onto the
floor. Then, she walked over to the answering machine and sighed as
she pressed the button.

The message played and when it stopped
I heard her mumble: “What else is new?”

I peeked through the door
and when I did, I saw a girl who looked nothing like my friend
Grace. Her hair was jet-black with a few streams of blue flowing
down. When she turned around, I noticed she was as pale as a ghost,
and she had rings of black makeup around her eyes. She looked like
she was going to cry, that was when I decided to come
out.

I opened the door slowly, and it
creaked. She turned back around and the instant her eyes locked
with mine, I collapsed to the floor. I managed to look up at her;
she looked terrified, but she held her eyes on me. I tried to
speak, but I couldn’t. It took a lot of energy to even look up at
her, and when I could I realized that she was glowing. Dante ran up
the stairs and stood in the doorway; he hurried up and tried to
explain things.

“
We’re here to help you. We
think something really bad is going to happen to you,” he
said.

Once he finished speaking, I
felt normal. I took a few deep breaths and sat up. She kept her
eyes on us. She looked unsure of whether to believe us.

“
This is going to sound
crazy, but I need you to believe me…” I began. “We were friends—in
what I can only explain as another life—I came back from the
future, and everything has changed. Some really bad things
happened.”

I explained the whole thing
to Grace, who sat there listening the entire time. A few parts of
the story shocked her, but other than that she seemed to believe
me. She invited us to stay, but after that she pretty much kept
quiet. Once Dante was sure everything was okay, he disappeared with
a swirl of blue and green.

Grace went into her room, and told me
to help myself to whatever I needed. She stayed in there for quite
a while until there was a knock on the door. She ran in and put her
finger up to her lips to silence me, and then she looked through
the peephole. She sighed with relief but didn’t open the
door.

“
What was that about?” I
asked.

“
I think you’re right; I am
in trouble,” she whispered.

Someone had been following her, just
like in my vision when she came over. This time, however, she had
powers… I didn’t understand.

“
So how long have they been
following you?”

“
A week, at the most, but
sometimes I could swear I saw a person looking through my window,
wandering around my house late at night.”

“
A week?” I
asked.

“
It might not even have been
that long; I didn’t notice them until a few days ago.”

“
It’s so funny,” I laughed
without emotion. “All of the good things have been taken from my
life with this trip to the past, and yet all the same horrible
things remain.”

“
I’m sorry. You seem like a
great person, and I have no doubt in my mind that we were best
friends.”

She got up and walked away
without saying another word. When she returned, she had something
in her hand.

“
What’s that?” I
asked.

“
A picture…” she said,
looking closely at me. “I think whoever’s following me dropped it
outside.”

She handed it to me and
watched my face the entire time I stared. I couldn’t look away. I
couldn’t put it down, and I couldn’t bring myself to speak. I felt
tears lining my eyes, and a horrible feeling, deep down inside. I
had no explanation for it, but I knew it wasn’t good.

Something from the future
had followed me here, but I didn’t take anything with me. The
confusion all but paralyzed me as I stared down at a photo of me,
Dante and Grace. This wasn’t just any picture; I knew this picture.
I held it in my hands, and it brought me hope every single day I
was in Meadowbrook—and I hadn’t seen it since.

“
Are you up for a road
trip?” I asked, never taking my eyes away from the
picture.

“
Sure,” she said, sounding a
little confused.

We sat there waiting for
Dante in silence. About an hour after he left, he returned. First,
the blue and green swirls lit up the room, and then he appeared. He
held his hand out like he was grasping something, then he looked
next to him, disappointed.

“
What’s wrong?” I
asked.

“
Nothing I just thought…
never mind.”

“
Okay…. We were thinking
about taking a little trip,” I explained as I handed him the
picture.

“
Alright, but let’s wait
until morning,” he said and sat down. “What’s this?”

“
It’s us, when we were
friends.”

He sat there staring at the photo; I
couldn’t bring myself to say anything.

“
One of you can use the
guest room,” Grace said.

“
I’ll take the couch,” Dante
said in a flat tone, never taking his eyes away from the
picture.

“
Thanks,” I said to
Grace.

It was starting to get dark, Grace went
to her room, and I sat there for a moment with Dante.

“
Well, I guess I’ll leave
you alone,” I said as I got up.

“
Sweet dreams,” he whispered
as I walked away.

I sat down on the bed and
for a moment, I wondered if I could get myself back to the future.
There was nothing for me here, Grace was alive, but she didn’t know
me, and she seemed capable of taking care of herself. Dante was
alive, but he would never love me. I had no one. I closed my eyes
and imagined the night that Dante and I spent alone; the night
before I found the house covered in blood. I wanted to get back to
that time; I knew what would happen, and I could save him. A voice
disrupted my concentration. It was Dante, or rather, his ghost. He
seemed more transparent than usual, but I didn’t know if this was
cause for concern.

“
Hey, are you alright?” I
asked.

“
This is the last time
you’ll see me like this,” he said.

“
What, why?” I
cried.

“
This is reality now. You’ve
been gone for too long….”

“
I don’t understand, what
about everyone else in the future?”

“
Anyone who is in the future
is here, too. Everything past today is disappearing.”

“
I don’t understand,” I
admitted.

“
There is nothing to
understand, this is reality now, and it will never be any other
way.”

“
What about you? What about
us?”

“
I’m here. I’m right
downstairs.”

“
No,” I protested, shaking
my head and letting the tears blind me.

“
I’m sorry Scarlett,” he
said.

“
I can still change it. I’m
going to Meadowbrook tomorrow; I’ll have everything figured out in
no time,” I promised.

“
It’s too late,” he sighed.
“Everyone you love is still here; you need to find a way to get
close to them again.”

“
I can’t Dante,” I
cried.

“
You are going to be just
fine,” he said before he was gone entirely.

I laid my head down on the pillow and
stared at the ceiling. I couldn’t even begin to think about what
Dante said. This couldn’t be all there is; the future couldn’t be
gone.

I closed my eyes and soon was deep
asleep in a dream that I wasn’t even in.

Dante paced around the room—Allison’s
room. She was nowhere to be seen, and he was visibly nervous. He
walked in circles and then finally sat down and put his head in his
hands. He sat there for a long time, just waiting. I heard
footsteps coming up to the door; he froze, and then Allison walked
in.

“
What are you doing here?”
she asked him.

“
We need to
talk….”

“…
About?” She said in a
quiet voice.

“
Everything.”

She went to grab his hand,
but he pulled it back. He looked into her eyes, and all of the
emotion I’d seen before was gone.

“
Are you breaking up with
me?” she asked.

“
If I leave without you—then
yes.” He grabbed her hand and a swirl of blue and green lit up the
room. He was gone, but she remained.

She sat down on the bed as
if nothing unusual had happened; the only thing that remained was
her sadness. She closed her eyes and then they popped open. She
searched around for something, but couldn’t find it.
The sketchpad.
I needed
to return it, that was the least I could do. She grabbed a piece of
paper and started drawing.

It seemed like I had been in
this dream for hours, and I must have been. When I looked at her
drawing, she had drawn herself, and she was almost done drawing
someone next to her. I couldn’t yet make out who it was, but it was
a guy. When she was finished, I looked over her shoulder, I
recognized the guy in the picture—Cooper. They both had smiles on
their faces and their arms around each other; she drew a big heart
over top of them. I knew if we were going to try and find George
and Elizabeth, I would have to take her with us.

When I woke up, I felt
rested. I walked down the stairs. Dante was still sleeping, and I
didn’t see Grace, so I decided to take a walk. As I went to go out
the door, Dante’s eyes opened.

“
Where are you going?” he
yawned.

“
Oh,” I said, surprised. “I
was going to go for a walk.”