Rewind (Vanish Book Three) (8 page)

—
Ann

I knew exactly where she was thinking;
now I only wished that I had their number. George and Elizabeth
were in danger.

“
Dante,” I called from
across the room.

“
Yeah?”

“
Remember that dream that
you had?”

“
Yes, but what does that
have anything to do with—“

“
I’m wondering how… accurate
it was. Do you remember calling Elizabeth and George?”

“
Yeah… I do.”

“
Do you remember what number
you dialed in the dream? This is important.”

“
I—“

“
Think, please, I need to
get ahold of them. They might be in trouble.”

I knew it was a stretch to think they
had the same number. With everything that had changed to think a
phone number would be the same was wishful thinking, but I had to
try.

“
I think the number was
stored in the phone, but I have a better way… let’s get Rose out
first.”

I looked behind me; hanging on the wall
was a set of keys. I had been trying not to look at them as I was
talking to Nurse Debby. I grabbed them and went down the hall. I
knew she would be in one of the rooms that had been cleaned up, but
both of the doors were shut. I knocked on one of them, no answer.
No answer when I knocked on the other one either. I needed to try
both, there were five keys. The first one didn’t work in either
door. The second key worked on one, but the room was empty. The
third worked on the second door, and Rose lay passed out on the
bed.

I looked over at Dante; he nodded and
went over to pick Rose up.

“
Take her back to the car;
I’ll be there in a second. Be careful.”

“
Do you want me to stay with
you?” Grace asked.

“
Yeah, thanks,” I said as I
walked into the room.

I looked around. I needed to
make it look like she escaped, but how? I grabbed the lamp on the
table and threw it at the window. The lamp shattered into a hundred
pieces, but the window was still intact. There was a wooden chair,
I grabbed it and walked over to the window. I smashed it against
the window three times before the window even cracked. I hit it
three more times, and the chair was in pieces all over the room.
Finally, I gave up and imagined it shattering.

I shut and locked both of the doors,
and returned the keys to their place. I turned off the computer
monitor, and left Meadowbrook—hopefully for the last time. Grace
and I ran toward the car. Dante had Rose lying across the back
seat.

“
Grace,” Dante said. “I need
you to stay with Rose, okay?”

“
Where are you guys going?”
she asked, looking at Dante. He had his eyes fixed on
me.

“
I’m taking Scarlett to see
Elizabeth and George, to warn them.”

I couldn’t help the smile that spread
across my face. He threw Grace the keys and grabbed my hand, and
soon we were traveling through the neon passageway.

When it stopped, we were
standing right in front of their house. Even with everything on my
mind, I couldn’t help but push it away and think about how much
Dante had changed within the last three days. He went from hating
me, to being my hero. I only wished that he could be
more.

I went to run up to the
door, but I stopped. I wondered if I should change my hair color
and make up a new name. I wanted to be the one to tell my mother,
with Rose of course. Maybe just changing my hair would be enough; I
closed my eyes and imagined my hair turning a beautiful, golden
blonde.

“
What are you doing?” Dante
asked.

“
I don’t know, dealing with
the issues at hand, and nothing else.” He nodded, and we walked
toward the door. Within seconds of knocking, George stood at the
door, looking tired.

“
Yes?” he said
robotically.

“
Hi, I’m—I’m Scarlett and
this is Dante. We’ve come here to warn you.”

“
It’s not often that people
come here to help us, so excuse me if I’m a little cautious… what’s
this about?”

“
Is your wife home?” I
asked.

“
No,” his tired face
crumpled into a frown.

“
The Alliance might come
here… they’re looking for… someone. They want to take their powers,
and I think they believe that person will come here.”

“
Well, if they can come
here, I’ll just tell them that they’re not here, and they’ll leave.
Thank you for the warning, and I hope it wasn’t too much trouble
coming here, but I’ll be fine.” He went to shut the
door.

“
No wait!” I shouted.
“Things are different this time, the woman that I think might come
here wants—well, to take over the world basically.”

“
There’s always some nut who
wants to take over the world, I think I can deal with
it.”

“
Please, you have to listen
to me.”

“
Look, I don’t have the time
for this, unless you have a problem, there’s nothing I can
do.”

“
I do have a problem; I’m
the one they’re looking for.” He stared at me for a
minute.

“
George, we came here to
help you, but we need your help in return,” Dante said, breaking
the silence.

“
Come in,” he
sighed.

He led us over to the couch and told us
to have a seat. The house looked different; it wasn’t neat and tidy
like it had been when we were here before.

“
So, if you don’t mind me
asking, where is your wife?” I asked.

“
A lot has been going on
lately, we’re getting a divorce.”

“
Where are your
children?”

“
How do you know so much
about me?”

“
It’s a long story,” I
answered.

“
My daughter, Lily went with
her mother, and my son, Cooper is here with me.”

“
I can tell that you miss
them, and if you help us, I can help you talk to your wife,” I
promised.

“
I don’t think that’s a good
idea, she doesn’t want anything to do with me.”

“
Why?” I asked.

I knew I was being too nosey, but if
this were the future, I would have been asking all of these
questions and more. I would have been doing everything in my power
to get them back together.

“
This wasn’t the life she
wanted. She loved helping people, but most of the people that come
to us aren’t in any real danger. She got sick of this
life.”

“
That’s not the Elizabeth I
knew,” I blurted and immediately regretted it.

“
What did you say?” George
asked.

“
Can you keep a secret?” I
sighed. “I came back from the future; we were staying here with you
and Elizabeth. I was cornered by the Alliance; I had no other
choice. Violet, Elizabeth’s sister, is my mom.”

“
Wow,” he said in
wonder.

“
Let’s forget about that for
now,” I said as I changed my hair back to my natural color.
George’s eyes opened wide. “We need to beat Ann and Nurse Debby.
They want to take everyone’s powers. They want to take over the
Alliance; the world.”

“
Let’s say I believe you.
There is no way the four of us can do this ourselves.”

“
How about eight?” I asked.
“We’re going to get Elizabeth and Lily back here, and we have two
people waiting for us.”

“
I don’t think I can. I’m
sorry.”

“
Fine, thanks for your time,
and everything I said… let’s keep it between us,” I mumbled as I
grabbed Dante’s hand. Soon we were back at the car with Grace and
Rose. “I’ll be right back.”

I ran toward Meadowbrook. I
had an idea, and I needed to get something. I ran in and looked
everywhere, if Debby planned to drug us, she had to have a stash
somewhere. Finally, I found a small box under the desk; there was a
piece of paper at the bottom. The orange pills took away powers for
a short period of time. The blue pills were sleeping pills—strong
sleeping pills; two would knock you out almost immediately. I
grabbed the whole bottle and ran back to the car.

I wasn’t going to give up
hope on George and Elizabeth, but aside from a safe place to stay,
I didn’t see them being of much help. I would help them get back
together, once I could stop to breathe. Right now, we needed to
find somewhere to stay, somewhere close to Sunny Bay.

As I sat in the car, I
realized that I couldn’t go on nagging about my misfortunes. It
only seemed to make matters worse. It kept everything right there
in the front of my mind day in and day out. I was going to get past
this once and for all, and then I was going to help George and
Elizabeth. I would set everyone free that the Alliance had
captured, and the Alliance wouldn’t know what hit them when I was
through. In fact, they probably wouldn’t even know who they were or
that the Alliance ever existed. It was fool proof, and it was time
for me to do what I’d wanted to do for what seemed like so long
now.

We decided it was probably
best to go back to Grace’s house. She told us it wasn’t unusual for
her mom to be gone for weeks at a time. It was our only option
aside from a hotel room. When we arrived, the front door was open.
Grace looked at us cautiously before walking to the door. I
followed close behind her, and Dante walked in front of her. There
was broken glass on the living room floor, but Grace said nothing
appeared to be missing. I had a hunch that I knew who it was—Ann. I
wondered when she came, before she took Rose to Meadowbrook, or
after. I also wondered if she paid George a visit yet, I hoped he
and Cooper were okay.

“
Dante, can I talk to you
for a minute?” I asked as I dragged him into the spare
bedroom.

“
What?” he asked skeptically
as I closed the door.

“
I’m going to let Rose take
the guest room. Tonight I want you to take me by my
house.”

“
Why?”

“
Step one in my plan,” I
smiled. “C’mon let’s go get Rose.”

She was still passed out in
the back of the car. Dante picked her up with ease and took her
upstairs to the guest room. Grace went to bed, and that left me and
Dante on the couch. I didn’t know what to say to him, if I talked
about my feelings, it would freak him out. After all, he wasn’t the
guy who fell in love with me.

“
So when do you want me to
take you to your house?” he asked.

“
Eh, in a little while, I’m
not exactly excited about this, but it has to be done.”

“
What exactly has to be
done?”

“
Don’t worry, I’ll take care
of it. I just need you to take me there.”

“
Alright,” he sighed as he
stared at me.

“
What?” I said as I got up
to look in the mirror.

“
Have you ever had déjà vu,
and you didn’t know why? Something felt so familiar… a feeling,
or—never mind,” he laughed.

“
What are you thinking
about?” I wondered.

“
That dream, I mean, I could
almost call it a nightmare, but I could also call it the best
memory I have,” he said, now serious.

I closed my eyes and
remembered. It was hard, and we had fights, but it was all worth
it. The night at the lake, and the last night, were the best
memories I had.

When I opened my eyes, there
was less than an inch between us. Within a second, the inch turned
into nothing, but before his lips could reach mine, I heard
footsteps less than five feet away. I turned toward them; Grace
stood there with two pillows and a stack of blankets.

“
Sorry for interrupting,”
she said as she put the blankets down and walked away.

“
I’m sorry,” he said as he
moved to the other side of the couch.

“
For what?”

“
Let’s go,” he said as he
held his hand out. I grabbed it and soon we were standing in my
bedroom. He went to let go of my hand, but I squeezed it tighter
and shut my eyes and within seconds, we were both
invisible.

“
Be quiet, okay?” I
said.

“
Yeah.”

I walked down the stairs.
Ann was sitting in the kitchen with a drink in front of her. She
looked excited, but worried.

I took the bottle of pills out of my
pocket and shook two out into my hand. She looked toward the
window, and stared outside. This was my chance. I walked over to
the table without making a sound and dropped the pills into her
drink. She turned around and picked the glass up, swishing it
around. I held my breath, did she somehow know? She took a drink,
and I relaxed. Now all we had to do was wait.

I went back upstairs and into Ann’s
room, I knew she had to have one of those necklaces handy, now I
just needed to find it. I looked in her nightstand and sure enough,
under a pile of random things, there was a necklace. It glowed when
I touched it, and I knew it was the real thing. I put it in my
pocket and went back into my room. Dante was still sitting on the
bed; I sat next to him.