Last Time She Died Read online

  “I know.” She faced Catherine, shaking. “You heard Florie scream? She wasn’t there by choice. He—” Alexia trailed off.

  “He would not do that. He can’t do that. Right?” Catherine stammered.

  “He forced her. You saw it. He forced her.”

  “I know. I know.”

  Alexia felt the alarm rising in Anne. “We saw him do it. He saw us.”

  Anne took a deep breath and reached out for her friend. Her grip was iron. “We need to go.” Anne looked from the hallway to the open meadow at the bottom of the steps. “We are in danger. We need to be reborn. Today.”

  They moved away from the Accentus, but the crack of a breaking stick had Catherine pulling Anne into the shadows of the giant sunflowers to their left.

  “We have to get to the others. We aren’t safe here.” Anne’s voice was a harsh whisper.

  “You’re right.” Blaine’s voice echoed around them.

  Anne sprang up and ran. When she looked back, Blaine was right behind her. Catherine was nowhere to be seen. She must have gotten away without Blaine seeing her, Anne thought. Blaine closed in on Anne and pinned her against a rock. The place this memory began. She saw it again.

  Catherine hadn’t gotten away.

  When Blaine hoisted Catherine’s body over his shoulder and started toward the Portal, something in Anne felt like it exploded. Rain slammed down from the sky. Blaine tripped on the second stair and tumbled to the ground, dropping Catherine.

  Anne reached for her friend’s hand and Catherine struggled to her feet. Anne couldn’t remember why she was running. She just had a nagging desire to be reborn immediately.

  Catherine begged Anne to slow down. They stopped and looked around. There was rain off in the distance, but the storm was dissipating. Anne found it odd; normally the weather was perfect in the Cetteri.

  They found the rest of the group and Catherine’s words were excited. She was ready to be human again.

  Alexia felt a slight pull and when she blinked, she was back with Leland. Looking down at herself, she saw that she was Alexia once again.

  “Blaine.” Alexia’s voice was panicked. “I remember now. Blaine. We saw him and now he wants to destroy us.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  “We saw him,” Alexia repeated, sinking into a chair in the living room.

  She detailed the events Cali and she had witnessed.

  Leland sat on the arm of Alexia’s chair and cupped her hand in his. “He killed us in so many lives.” his voice was hollow.

  “How?” Alexia looked up. When he didn’t answer, she tried again. “Why did we forget?”

  Leland shrugged, shaking his head.

  Alexia looked toward the floor. “He said killing the Essences made him euphoric. Like he was getting high off it. He said when that was gone, all that was left was power.”

  “That doesn’t make sense.”

  “Oh shit,” Alexia said when a thought burst from the stampede to the front of her mind. Leland looked up at her. “If he keeps killing us, why is Cali still alive?”

  Leland considered. “Do you think Blaine caused your accident?” he asked slowly.

  “The car did burn.” Alexia’s voice was unsure. “I mean, he wouldn’t chase us that long and just give up, right?”

  Leland nodded. “Well, it seems to take him a while to find us and kill us. Maybe he hadn’t found you yet to kill you. Maybe he hasn’t found Cali.”

  “Maybe,” Alexia repeated with doubt. “But he will still be after Cali and Dustin.” That she was sure of.

  Leland looked hard into her eyes. “Yes. You’re right.” He shook his hands as if shaking off water and started nodding before going still. “You need to help me.”

  “With what?”

  “I have Cali’s power to see through dimensions, but it’s very weak. Make it rain.”

  She scoffed. “How on earth do I do that?”

  “You’ve done it before.” Leland looked away from her and focused on the space in front of him. It started to warp. “Just try to remember how you felt.” A filmy blob floated at eye level.

  Alexia felt a slight pinch, like when she visited her own pasts, but it was followed by a bout of lightheadedness that almost knocked her down. Leland quaked as well. She reached for his hand and he steadied her.

  “Sorry. Obviously, I need some work,” Leland said as he tried to balance himself. “I haven’t really used this power.”

  “You know so much about Cali. You knew when I died. You checked on us, right?”

  “It is easy to see things from the Cetteri if you know who you’re looking for. I never had any problem locating you.”

  “So, Blaine finding us makes sense.” Alexia swallowed hard.

  “No. Blaine doesn’t have a tracking power and he has no connection to any of us, like I do. It shouldn’t be easy for him to find us.”

  Alexia nodded. She looked away from Leland and to the blob in front of her. It had cleared up a little, more like a dusty, blurry projector. “Is that Cali?”

  “I don’t know. Focus on Cali and hopefully the connection you two usually exploit will work here.”

  “Hopefully?” Alexia said, exasperated.

  “I’m not great at using more than one ability at a time. I don’t even know if it will work. I’ve never actually done this.”

  “How do I make it rain?” Alexia asked while staring at the blurry space in front of her with no success.

  “You just need to focus on it.”

  She nodded, though Leland couldn’t see her. She thought about rain and about Cali. The picture wasn’t getting any clearer and there was no rain. It was like looking through dirty, warped glass.

  Leland swayed and the window got less opaque. “Seriously, where are we with the rain?”

  Alexia closed her eyes and focused on everything to do with rain. The sound, the smell. She willed it to pour from the sky, but there was no rain.

  “It isn’t working!” She stomped her foot.

  “Feel it.” Leland squeezed her hand in his and pulled her into him. His warmth took her mind off everything but the heat. She focused on what she felt and what she wanted. She felt a tiny drop hit her nose and with it, excitement.

  “I did it!” She opened her eyes, but there was no rain. As if it had been an imagined drop. “I felt it!” Alexia stared up and blew a breath out through her teeth.

  “Focus,” Leland said as a bead of sweat ran down his forehead.

  “I didn’t have to do anything before!” she whined.

  “Well, figure out what you did then, or focus like you just were.” His voice was strained.

  Alexia sighed and nodded. She relaxed into Leland and found the little impulse she’d focused on before. She squeezed Leland’s hands and felt the rain start to dribble. She focused on helping Cali.

  As soon as Alexia opened her eyes, the rain stopped. “Sorry,” she muttered as she snapped her eyes shut. Rain dripped down on them again, and she focused on the sounds of the drops plopping to the ground.

  ***

  The road to Dustin’s hummed underneath the car’s tires. Cali watched the tall trees speed by, threatening to lull her to sleep. Dustin had the radio turned low and the painkillers plus her exhaustion won out. Her dreams were peaceful. No Lexi. No blood.

  Cali woke as Dustin pulled up the emergency brake. His house was only about twenty-minutes from hers and she woke feeling tired and sore.

  She stretched and popped her back, and by the time she reached for the handle, Dustin had the door pulled open. He helped her out of the low car and held her arm as they walked in. She groaned and faltered from the pain in her feet as she hobbled forward.

  Dustin lifted her once they got to the three steps leading to his front deck. He fiddled with the keys for a minute before Cali grabbed them from his occupied hands and opened the door for him. He carried her to the couch and sat her down softly as if she only weighed ten pounds. Dustin brought in her bag and she gazed out t
he window to the small creek behind his house. Mist rose off the water, billowing into his flower beds in the cold of the night.

  Cali’s eyes followed the path of pavers from the stream to his back door. She felt herself drifting back to sleep and realized Dustin had been talking to her.

  “Sorry. What?” she asked.

  Dustin smiled and shook his head. An owl sounded nearby. Sitting next to Cali, Dustin pulled a blanket over her legs.

  “Your feet okay?”

  “Actually they feel pretty good. I’m a little hungry though.”

  “Oh good. I’m starving.” Dustin clutched his stomach and doubled over for emphasis.

  She laughed as he stood and wandered into the kitchen. Recently remodeled, it had dark concrete countertops with equally dark cabinets. He said he was going to slowly remodel the whole house. The rest was still stuck with its eighties charm. The plush carpet in the living room, while outdated, was still soft and not overly worn, but a bedroom he hardly used for anything but storage had mirrored walls and sapphire blue carpet.

  Dustin rummaged through his cabinets and, before long, Cali had a dish of baked mac and cheese sitting in front of her.

  The lights flickered and dimmed as Cali started to eat. They got brighter, but the light had yellowed.

  “Do you smell that?” Dustin came out of the kitchen, opening windows on his way.

  As Cali opened her mouth to say no, the strong smell of sulfur permeated the room as if on a breeze, forcing its rotten fingers down her throat. Gagging, Cali covered her nose with her hand. Moving to sit her bowl of noodles on the glass table in front of her, Cali froze. A distorted laugher echoed around her and she let out a weak whimper.

  “Cali?” Dustin moved toward her.

  Lurching forward, she fell to the floor. Her dish clanged on the glass table, noodles spilling. Tears welled in her eyes as she looked up to Dustin.

  “I’m gonna puke,” Cali stammered. “Help me up.” She heaved.

  Dustin nodded, eyes wild, and helped her to the bathroom.

  “No, no. Outside,” Cali rasped between wretches.

  They staggered down the steps and the air cleansed her tainted lungs. She sat on a large rock a few feet from the driveway and stared at her reflection in Dustin’s car while he darted back into his house. She jumped as the screen door slammed shut. Closing her eyes, she shook her head slowly. It throbbed and she pressed her hands against her temples.

  “Are you okay?”

  She jumped again; she hadn’t heard him approach. She looked up to his pale face and nodded. “You?”

  He nodded slowly and sat next to her. “Maybe the sewer backed up. I don’t know.”

  “Yeah.” She sounded unconvinced. “Maybe.”

  Dustin stared at his house with a vacant look. He didn’t say anything, but Cali watched as the color slowly returned to his cheeks.

  “It’s been a weird day,” he mumbled.

  “Yeah,” Cali answered in a whisper.

  They sat out in the dark, gaping at Dustin’s house until Cali started rationalizing. It just smelled; they didn’t need to hide from the house. The feeling and the smell seemed familiar. They both scared her. She couldn’t figure out why.

  “Just the sewer line.” Breaking the silence, Cali made Dustin jump. “Let’s go to bed.”

  Dustin seemed to decide something, shook his head, and reached for her. “I’m hungry.”

  “You made food.”

  “I don’t want it anymore.”

  Cali winced at the pain in her feet. The painkillers were wearing off already. She was glad when he put his arm around her waist and supported her to the car.

  They drove to her favorite burger joint. Cali followed the roads with her eyes, watching intersections mill with pedestrians.

  She ordered her usual bison burger. It was huge, and juicy, and perfect. For dessert, they shared a frozen chocolate-dipped-banana.

  Her stomach was full, and the drugs were kicking in. She relaxed her shoulders and ignored her racing mind.

  “Did I burn the mac and cheese?” He played with the straw in his drink as he spoke. “Is that why we left?”

  Cali stiffened. She couldn’t remember leaving the house or driving to the restaurant. There were just small fragments. “I don’t think so.” It was almost a question. “I think I spilled it.”

  “Oh.” Dustin nodded. “Right.”

  “These drugs must be doing a number on me.” Cali laughed and told herself that’s all it was. She tried to ignore the fact that it didn’t explain Dustin not remembering. He was busy taking care of her and she was a mess, so he just forgot. Her day was full of holes. “How did I hurt my feet?” She felt like the memory was just beyond her reach.

  Dustin popped a chunk of the chocolate banana in his mouth and frowned. “I don’t know. The doctors said something about a dream. Sleepwalking, I guess.” He looked unconvinced.

  She stiffened at the mention of the dream and her stomach turned. She swallowed the bite in her mouth, and it slid slowly down her throat like a lump of coal.

  She remembered dirt, cold, running, and being afraid.

  More like a nightmare, she thought.

  Once back home, Cali wrapped herself in a blanket that pooled around her. She watched the stars twinkle outside the window as Dustin cleaned the spilled noodles. The moon was huge in the sky and Cali cuddled into Dustin when he joined her on the couch.

  “Dustin?” Cali whispered.

  “Hmm?”

  “I love you.”

  Dustin leaned over and kissed her deeply. Sinking into the couch with his weight pressing into her, she groaned. He lifted himself and plucked her off the couch, carrying her into the bedroom.

  She kissed Dustin hard on the mouth and started to tug at his jeans. Before she could get them off, Dustin jumped out of bed. Cali froze.

  The smell of rotten eggs permeated the room.

  Bending over her, Dustin ripped her from the bed, taking the sheets with him. Shirtless and with his pants unbuttoned, he carried her topless toward the door. A flash caught Cali’s attention and as she turned, the curtains burst into flames.

  “Dustin! Fire!” Her voice shook.

  Glass exploded from the door as he reached for it, glittering around them. Cali was thrown from his arms and she hit the floor hard. With a crack, she slid into the hard glass table. Before everything went black, she felt the flames and saw the yellow surrounding her.

  As the room faded to black, a voice like dry leaves swarmed around her. “I said you couldn’t run from me.” Cali’s blood ran cold. “I said I would find you.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Alexia struggled to focus on keeping the rain falling. Leland’s hand still held hers and the blurry thing floating in front of them started to take shape. She could feel his grip tightening and color seeped into the picture. She began to relax. It wasn’t as hard to keep the rain going as starting had been. Leland’s growing window into another dimension became clear as glass.

  Fire consumed everything. Yellow and orange licked against the window in the air. It was so close and so real, she was surprised she couldn’t feel heat. She looked at Leland, who still had his eyes closed.

  “We’re too late.” Her voice was surprisingly calm. “Blaine found them.”

  ***

  Flames danced toward Cali. Fire crackled all around her. She heard screaming, her own or Dustin’s, she wasn’t sure. Perhaps both. The sound started to drift away. It became distant and muffled as if she were underwater.

  Laughter, horrible and familiar, swirled around her. Her heart raced. Pain, like daggers, sliced up and down her body. She cried out but couldn’t hear her own voice. She couldn’t move. She gasped for air and her lungs burned. Pain racked her body with the effort of breathing out the blaze. The intense heat was replaced with something tar-like seeping into her lungs, suffocating her.

  Sparks of light danced. Everything vanished again. She could no longer hear Dustin. She could
n’t hear anything. The silence was absolute. The flames had left their mark of pain, but she felt no new licks of heat. The heavy fullness of her lungs retreated. She couldn’t tell if it had left or if she’d stopped breathing.

  It went on forever. Or seconds. It was all the same. The silence. The darkness. It was everything. It was nothing.

  “Cali,” a voice hissed around her.

  Every muscle in her body tensed.

  Tall, crashing waves like glass, and heat, and pain smashed over and over into her body, only to retreat and come crashing back down.

  “I know you’re here.” The voice was distant. Fear skittered through Cali’s body.

  A tiny spark of light appeared in the distance. The waves of sound and pain moved out and they took the voice with it. Cali marveled at the pearlescent light, which absorbed her attention. Involuntarily, she reached for it. Her body responded, and she stood and drifted toward the brightness.

  Her feet didn’t hurt. Nothing hurt. She glanced down. There were no wounds on her bare feet. I died, she thought. Do I really have to walk into the light?

  Drawing closer, Cali saw it wasn’t simply a bright beam of light. The blackness surrounding her had been so complete that this oasis of something different had been shocking. It turned out not to be all that bright. It reminded her of a large movie screen. Lexi stood staring her way. Next to her was a man.

  The edges of the scene were fuzzy, but they were clearly in focus.

  It was raining heavily where they were. Lexi’s hair was curling from the dampness. Their eyes held a look of horror. The man moved his lips but Cali couldn’t hear his words.

  She moved closer. Lexi was life-sized through the screen and Cali tried to touch her. The image sharpened and noises came through like voices through static on a fading radio station.

  “You bitch.” Somewhere behind her, there was a crash.

  The picture in front of her snapped off and when Cali turned toward the voice, a large swirling, yellow cloud approached her bringing the smell of sulfur with and threating to suffocate her. Cali ran into the blackness and away from the thing chasing her.