Endless (29 page)

“What about Ben?”

“Ben?” Jenny asked. “What about him? He has nothing to do with this.”

“How do you know?”

Jenny shook her head. “Because, other than the dream we shared—”

“Exactly,” Tiffany said. “Ben and Nikolai were both in that first vision, right? The one with the music box?”

“What music box?” Nikolai asked.

Jenny looked at him, realizing for the first time that in all the confusion, she’d never told Nikolai about the music box. She told him now, giving him all the detail she could remember from the shared dream with Ben.

“But you were still you in the dream,” she finished. “Ben was someone else. I think his name was Sergei.”

Nikolai’s face drained of color. “Sergei.” He practically spit the name from his mouth.

“You knew him? In Russia?”

Nikolai stood, pacing to the window, his body coiled with tension. “He could have saved you, too. We both could have.”

“What are you saying, exactly?” Tiffany asked.

“Sergei was the son of a high-ranking Bolshevik. Before things turned horrific, there were rumors that a marriage might be arranged between him and one of the Romanov daughters, a union that might ease tensions between the two factions. But when the situation deteriorated he did nothing to help you.”

“That makes sense,” Tiffany said slowly.

Jenny shook her head. “It does?”

Tiffany nodded. “You said Nikolai came here from that time.”

“Right … ”

“Okay, but you didn’t. Not the way Nikolai did. You were reincarnated from that time. And if you were reincarnated from that time, why not Ben?”

Jenny was starting to see where Tiffany was headed.

“Think about it,” Tiffany continued. “If you’re some kind of past-life medium and you and Ben shared a dream set in the past, isn’t it possible you both had the vision for a reason?”

Jenny thought back to what Nikolai had said about people with unresolved issues. “You mean because we have some kind of unfinished business?”

Tiffany nodded. “Nikolai doesn’t have unfinished business. He’s here with you. But maybe you had the vision with Ben because he has something to work out with you.”

Jenny hadn’t thought about it before, but it made sense. Ben wasn’t exactly the happiest, most well-adjusted person on the planet. She’d just assumed it was because of everything that had happened with his dad. But what if it was more?

They sat in silence for a minute before Jenny spoke again. “Even if this is all true, what am I supposed to do with it? And what about Nikolai? I can’t do anything for anyone until we figure out how to keep him away from the Order.”

“I honestly don’t know,” Tiffany said. “But it seems like it’s Nikolai’s decision more than yours.”

Jenny looked from Tiffany to Nikolai and back again. “What do you mean?”

Tiffany shrugged. “Unless you find the book, he’s either going to lose you or lose his soul. Seems to me like that’s a decision a person should get to make for himself.”

The words were still echoing in Jenny’s mind when her phone vibrated in her bag. By the time she found it, the phone had stopped ringing. She was startled to see that the missed call was only one of three from Ben. She hadn’t heard her phone until the last time. And that wasn’t all. She’d missed five texts from him, too.

The first one was simple enough.
Hey … Can you give me a ride?

But they got increasingly more urgent. When Jenny came to the final one, dread flooded her body.

Something bad has happened. Call me now.

Jenny stood by the window as she dialed Ben’s number. Nikolai and Tiffany watched her from the other side of the room.

Ben picked up on the first ring. “Finally! Where have you been?”

“I’m sorry,” Jenny said. “I … I’ve had some stuff going on. I didn’t hear my phone. What’s up? Is everything okay?”

There was a pause from the other end of the phone. “My dad’s out, Jenny.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, he’s out,” Ben practically shouted. “He’s out of prison. Now.”

“But … that can’t be right.” Jenny thought back to what Ben had told her on the train. “You said he wouldn’t be out until September.”

“I know what I said, but I guess I was wrong. He’s out, and my mom has the truck at the store. Can you give me a ride?”

“To Books?” she asked.

“Yeah, my mom’s closing for Samuel. I need to pick her up and get her back here to pack some things so we can get out of here.” His voice didn’t sound right. It was low and flat. Like he was already gone.

Jenny glanced over at Nikolai, still on the sofa. They still didn’t have a plan for evading the Order and it was getting later by the minute. But Ben was her friend. He needed her.

“I’ll be right there,” she said into the phone. She hung up, turning to Nikolai and Tiffany. “I have to go.”

Nikolai stood. “Where?”

“Ben needs help. I’m literally the only person he knows in Stony Creek, and he needs help.”

“We’ll go with you,” Tiffany said.

Jenny shook her head. “It’ll be safer for Nikolai to stay here. I’m going to take Ben to Books to get his mom and the truck and see if he needs anything else. I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

Nikolai moved toward her. “There’s no way you’re going alone.”

“Yes,” she said. “I am. Don’t fight me on this. I’m already worried about Ben. The last thing I need is to worry about you, too.”

His green eyes flashed. “And you don’t think I’d be worried about you?” He shook his head. “No way. We can either stand here and talk about it the rest of the day or we can get moving. But either way, I’m going.”

She could tell from the set of his jaw that he wasn’t going to budge. They were just wasting time talking about it.

*

They had to bang on the door for almost five minutes before Ben opened it. His hair was tousled, his eyes a little wild as he told them to come in, giving only a passing glance at Tiffany.

“Sorry. I’m packing.”

They followed him up the stairs to his room. Jenny couldn’t believe the mess. Clothes and shoes and books were piled every which way on the floor and bed. Ben didn’t seem to notice Jenny was there as he moved frantically from his dresser to the closet, throwing stuff into a suitcase and duffel bag that sat open on his bed.

“Can we help?” Jenny asked.

“No. Books doesn’t close for another hour. I’m just trying to get as much together as I can so that when my mom comes back she only has to pack her things.”

He closed the lid of the suitcase, forcing it to latch, and zipped the duffel.

A lump formed in Jenny’s throat. She didn’t want Ben to go. Didn’t want to think of him running, always running. Never able to settle down long enough for the kind, affable Ben she’d gotten to know to take root.

“Where will you go?” she asked.

“I don’t know,” he said, picking up the suitcase in one hand, the duffel in the other. “I’m going to pick my mom up from the store and bring her back here. We’ll pack up as much as we can and leave tonight. I’ll have to worry about the rest later.”

He was halfway to the front door when Jenny stopped him.

“What if I told you that you could stop running?” she asked. “For good?”

He turned with a weary sigh. “What are you talking about, Jenny?”

“I … I think I know why we saw what we saw with the music box. In our dream?” she reminded him.

He looked at the door. “I really have to go.”

“There’s something unfinished!” she shouted. “Something undone from your last life. I … I think it has to do with your father, and somehow Nikolai and I are part of it, too.”

“Something undone from my past life?” She couldn’t tell if it was disbelief in his voice or just exhaustion.

Tiffany stepped forward. “It’s like this: lots of people believe that we relive mistakes from one life to the next until we solve them for good. I think that’s why you and Jenny saw what you saw in the dream. You and Jenny and even Nikolai were all together before.”

Ben shook his head. “And who are you again?”

“Tiffany,” she said simply. “Jenny’s friend.”

He nodded skeptically. “Right.”

“What she’s saying makes sense if you think about it,” Jenny continued. “I think we were all together, and something happened that left some kind of … I don’t know, trauma or something.”

“Between you and me and,” he glanced at Nikolai, “him.”

Nikolai glared. “I don’t like the idea any better than you do.”

Jenny took a deep breath, ignoring their posturing. “I know it sounds crazy, but I think it happens more often than people think.”

“I can’t deal with this right now,” Ben said, starting again for the door.

“Jenny’s right,” Nikolai called after him. “She’s proof that we keep living, that we keep finding those to whom we’re connected. I found her again by coming forward to the time when her soul was reborn. You found her again because you have something that you and she need to complete. Through all that time and space, we’re together again. Maybe the universe is trying to tell us something.”

Ben stopped and turned around. “Even if this is all true, I don’t have time to figure out the past. I’m too busy trying to stay alive—and keep my mother alive—in the present.”

“But what if they’re connected?” Jenny said. “What if what happened then is connected to what’s happening now? With your mom and dad? What if figuring it out means putting it to rest?”

“You’re not making any sense.”

“Ben.” She stepped closer to him. “You still have the music box, right?”

“So?” he said.

“So, we could try.”

He seemed to consider it for a few seconds before shaking his head. “I can’t. My mom’s at the store. I have to go.”

Jenny glanced at the clock on the mantle. “The store doesn’t close for another forty-five minutes. It’s summer. There will be people there until then. She’s safe for now. Remember, the last time we used the music box, we were only under for fifteen minutes.” She heard the desperation in her voice. Why was it so important to help Ben? His situation with his dad, in this life at least, had nothing to do with her.

But she felt bonded to him now. Like her own future—and Nikolai’s—was connected to Ben’s.

“Nikolai and Tiffany could watch us,” she said. “Make sure we’re not under too long.”

He didn’t say anything, but she could tell from the look in his eyes that he was considering it. That he needed to find resolution to the mystery as much as she did.

“Please, Ben,” she pleaded. “Let me help you.”

He nodded, his eyes meeting hers. “Okay.”

*

“Ready?” Jenny sat on the floor with the music box in her lap.

Ben nodded. He was stretched out on the sofa behind her, his body taut with tension. His shirt came up in the front, revealing a little of the skin above his jeans. He lifted his head to look at Nikolai and Tiffany, sitting across from them.

“Remember, you have to wake us up by 9:15. My mother’s life depends on it.”

Nikolai nodded, his face sober.

“Got it,” Tiffany said.

Jenny took a deep breath and opened the jewel-encrusted antique. It took a few seconds for
Moonlight Sonata
to drift through the room. The notes were clangy and mechanical, but Jenny immediately felt something shift inside her. Like a door creaking open or an idea that suddenly clarified.

All of a sudden, there was something else out there. A possibility that hadn’t been there before.

She pulled out the piece of paper, the faded ink looping across its crackly surface.

“Okay, here we go.” She leaned her head back against the couch and read, taking her time with the words. Giving Ben ample opportunity to fall under their spell. “
Close your eyes as gently as a bird fluttering to rest on a spring branch. Let go of this world and its cares as you drift amidst the blackness of the great beyond, that place of both mystery and understanding. You are now in the place where all queries may be answered. Where all questions will find resolution.
” Jenny felt her hold slip on this time and place. The passage of time seemed to slow until she could almost see it flowing through the air in front of her. Even the dust in the air was suddenly suspended. She could see the tiny particles hanging before her as if unsure what to do or where to go. Her tongue felt cumbersome, but she forced herself to keep talking, not daring to look back and see if Ben was asleep. “
In this place, you hold the keys to even those things you have not yet wondered, but somehow know. There are no barriers here. No separation of time and space.
”

Everything fell away.