Torn (4 page)

“Are you okay, Sam?” Lucas kept asking.

“No, no. I’m fine.
Really.”
As soon as words of protest escaped my lips, the world suddenly started to spin. My vision hazed and I reached out for the counter to steady myself. “Really, I’m fine.” I barely made out Ethan yelling my name before I fell to the floor in a crumpled heap.

Their voices faded into the background as visions clouded my head. Something resembling shafts of light twirled angrily off in the distance. Darkness wrapped itself around me as wind whipped my hair into knotted layers. I was somewhere unfamiliar, perched on some mountainous cliff with the sea crashing furiously below. I brought my hand slowly in front of my face. Everything looked as if I was seeing it through oily water.

Smeared and unclear, everything about this place filled me with dread and unease. Despair and hopelessness permeated the air around me, as though happiness never existed. I couldn’t help but feel sad and confused. Seeing no way out, something inside me suddenly broke and I felt like a cornered animal. I shivered and instinctively wrapped my arms around myself.

Searching for anything familiar, my gaze was drawn toward those intense shafts of light in the distance. They seemed to be getting closer. I heard the crash of the waves accompanied by a low humming sound. With each passing second the sound got louder, filling my head. I covered my ears with my hands, trying in vain to silence the noise. Sadness draped over me, suffocating me like an itchy wool blanket.

Then suddenly I saw my dad. But it didn’t look like my dad. Not totally. Weird dark light was surrounding him and he was dressed in a long black coat I didn’t recognize, blending in amongst the shadows.

“Dad?”
I reached out, grasping nothing and he smiled softly.

“Samantha, honey, it’s your turn now.”

“My turn for what?”

The sadness wore me down and small tears fell down my cheeks as he looked at me with sad, narrowed eyes. “Just remember to follow your instincts and you’ll be fine. I’ll be here when you need me. You have a long road ahead and you have important choices to make.”

“Be where? What is this place? Where’re you going? What choices?” He started to fade further into the shadows. “No! Don’t leave me!” I sobbed.

The wind picked up furiously and the low hum morphed into a full-blown ear-deafening buzz. It was all around me and he had to yell for me to hear him over the din. “You can’t stay, Sam. You aren’t ready. You have to go for now. It’s in your hands. It’s your turn. You have guardians to help you but trust them cautiously. You need to go now. I’ll do what I can from here but you need to be ready. You’re running out of time. Follow the light that burns inside you.”

I watched as he took to the sky in a sudden burst of light, swirling feathers drifting to the ground in his wake. In his place, suspended in mid-air was the most beautiful creature I had ever seen. Abruptly the commotion ceased and I was filled with an eerie calm. The wind died down and the sea didn’t look quite so angry. Her body glowed golden beneath an almost transparent dress and her wings, the color of a glittering, muted rainbow, looked impossibly soft. With sad, determined eyes fixed on me, she spoke in the softest whisper and I had to strain to hear her.

“Samantha, it is time to face your fate. We need your help.”

“Help with what?” I tried to focus on her but the shafts of light in the distance began to take on color and my concentration hazed. The shimmering black and gold streams looked as though they were tangled in some violent dance in the heavens.

“Focus, Samantha,” she whispered more sternly. “We need your help. In time you will know what to do, but for now you must hurry.”

“What’re you talking about? What do I have to do? Where’s my dad?” My breath hitched as I tried not to hyperventilate.

“Your father was a good man, Samantha. He was very proud of you. And now, he has passed the journey onto you. You must keep his memory within you. You must not let anyone make you believe he was anything but a good man.”

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about! Tell me what you mean! Where’s my dad? Please!”

“I must go now, Samantha. All will be explained in due time. You must complete your training. Be vigilant of everything and everyone. You will teeter on the edge of darkness and you will be betrayed before you can succeed. Always remember that your choices will determine the fate of both hope and despair.”

Before I could speak again, the beautiful winged girl disappeared. The shafts of light moved ever closer and darkness slowly rolled back in, filling the space around them. The sea screamed out in pain as it resumed throwing itself against the jagged rocks below. Goosebumps littered my arms and beads of sweat slipped over my skin as pure terror gripped me.

The buzzing resumed and grew louder, closer. My vision blurred as huge swarms of mutated, winged beasts with long dagger-like stingers surrounded me. I swatted at my clothes, my hair, and my face to get them away. The noise was deafening and I felt it coming up from inside me. I couldn’t hear myself think. I knew I had to go, to leave this place, but my feet felt rooted to the ground, like hands were holding me firm, not allowing me to move.

“Sam, wake up.”

I heard someone familiar whisper my name and knew I needed to follow the sound to get out of there. I strained to listen to it over the noise, hoping to determine from which direction it was coming but panic rose inside me when I couldn’t find it. The cliff began to crumble a bit as though it wanted to drop me into the water below. I needed to focus.

I heard the voice again and realized it belongs to Lucas. I had to get to him. Turning away from the unknown and the darkness, I began to run.

I heard his voice quiver. “Ethan, she’s not waking up.”

The faster I ran from the cliff’s edge, the harder the wind blew against me, and the louder the noise got, the colder I felt. If I could just get to Lucas, I knew he would help me but even though I was sprinting, I didn’t seem to be moving forward.

Hands shook me gently, and something cool and soft was laid on my forehead. “Sam,” Lucas whispered. “Please wake up.”

When I looked up, I saw Lucas floating in the turbulent sky above me, holding out his hand. I jumped to grab it and everything shut off.

Complete darkness descended and I drifted, weightless. I could still feel Lucas’ hand in mine, guiding me. My body settled onto something cool and flat. My eyes fluttered open. My vision cleared and I saw Lucas staring down at me, his eyes worried. Behind him, Ethan was chewing on a fingernail and talking on the phone. I struggled to sit up.

“What happened?” I could barely manage a whisper.

“Sam! You’re awake!” Lucas grabbed me and pulled me into a tight hug. “Oh, thank God. You scared us.”

I saw the worry etched on his face. “I’m fine, I think.” My head felt heavy and I reached back to touch it. “I must’ve hit my head. How long was I out? I had the weirdest dream.”

Lucas smoothed back my hair.
“Only a few minutes.
You did hit your head, but not too hard. You cut your palm on the knife and must’ve fainted from the blood.”

A few minutes?
It felt like I’d been gone for hours. Why did it sound like he was trying to convince himself? And why was Ethan on the phone? And since when did I pass out from a small cut and a few drops of blood?

Lucas helped me lean back against the cabinets. He handed me a glass of water and I took a sip, noticing the tremors in my hands. I untied the scarf he’d wrapped around my hand and checked out the damage. It must’ve been one hell of a cut for me to pass out like that. But when I uncovered my hand to inspect it, my mouth went dry. The cut, the blood...had disappeared.
Healed over.

Still staring at my now uninjured palm, I tried to reassure them, and myself. “I’m okay, really. But that dream...it was so weird. Almost like a vision or something. I saw my dad and he told me something about it being ‘my turn.’ But I didn’t understand what he meant.”

I looked up to see darkness fall over Lucas’s face. The phone had slipped from Ethan’s grasp and as it clattered to the floor.

I jolted upright in bed, my pajamas soaking with sweat.

***

It took awhile for me to fall back to sleep. I changed into fresh pajamas, even remade the bed, but my nerves wouldn’t calm down. My mind was convinced that the events in the dream were real. But when I looked for my bathing suit, I found it right where I had left it yesterday, the tags still attached.

When I awoke the next morning, Ethan was curled up into a ball on my chair. I smiled. He always seemed to know when I might need him, and his presence warmed me to my toes. With my dad out of the country on yet another volunteer mission, it was comforting to know someone was there, watching over me while I slept. Laying a blanket over him, I checked the clock on my nightstand. Four in the morning was definitely too early for me to be conscious but there was no way I’d be able to get back to sleep for the second time. I could still feel the heaviness of my dream draped across my shoulders.

I stepped out into the hallway, hoping to escape the images that still lingered in my mind, haunting me. I really wanted to talk to my dad, tell him about the strange dream I’d had, but I knew it’d just make him worry and he’d insist on cutting his work short and coming home. Seeing the light on in the boys’ bedroom, I walked over and knocked lightly.

Lucas opened the door quickly. “Sam? What’re you doing up?”

“Couldn’t sleep and didn’t want to wake Ethan. What’re
you
doing up?”

“The same.
I woke up when Ethan left the room.” He seemed to want to say more but didn’t.

What was going on with him lately? It was obvious by the way he reacted that something about the change in Ethan’s and my relationship bothered him, but he would never tell me what. His reluctance to speak up was more annoying than anything. It wasn’t like there was anything going on between us anyway, and even if there were, I would expect a best friend to support me.

“What’s with you and Ethan lately?”
I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“You know what I mean. You act so weird all the time anymore. How come you didn’t take up the chair in my room instead of him?”

Impatience twisted in his face. “Look, I don’t have time for this. Are you okay? Do you need anything?”

There it was again. He was pushing me away. “I’m fine. I don’t need anything. You’re obviously very busy doing whatever you do at four in the morning.” As I turned on my heel to stalk back to my room, Lucas grabbed my arm and spun me around. I swore, for a second, I saw anger flash in his eyes before his face softened.

“Don’t be mad. I’m sorry. I’m just worried about you and tired and...” He sighed. “I don’t know what else.” Any annoyance I felt dissipated and I reached up to hug him. “Why don’t you come in and listen to music? I’ve been downloading songs all night. I couldn’t think of anything else to do.
Got some great songs.
I downloaded some grunge, classic rock, even some new stuff I think you’ll like!”

His enthusiasm was contagious and despite the emptiness I felt around me, I smiled back. I needed to do something to get my mind off of that dream and the chaos I could feel quietly brewing around me.

Before I knew it, it was time for us to get ready for school. I popped into my room, got dressed and raced downstairs to wait for Lucas. Ethan was in the kitchen eating an apple. Even though I could probably pack for a vacation in the bags under his eyes, as soon as he saw me, a huge grin spread across his face.

“Morning.”

“Morning.
Thanks for sleeping in the chair. It had to be uncomfortable.”

“Not too bad. How’d you sleep? I heard music on in our room so I figured you went in there and did your geeky music thing.”

I playfully punched his arm and he faked injury. “It is not geeky. We just happen to love music.”

“Don’t get me wrong. I love music, too. I just don’t need to spend hours on end dissecting the lyrics, looking for hidden meaning.”

“Fair enough, I guess. Maybe it is pretty geeky, but I love it.”

“You both do. So, how are you doing this morning?”

A chill spread through me. “Okay, I guess. Just feel a bit drained. I had this crazy dream. It felt so real.” I shivered.

He crossed the kitchen in an instant, and put a hand on my shoulder before pulling me into a hug.
“Hey, hey.
Don’t worry about it. It was just a dream after all.” He moved his hands to my face, forcing me to look him in the eyes. “Everything will be alright. Your dad will be home on Sunday, remember?”

I nodded and gave him a quick peck on the cheek, then thanked him and headed for the front door when I heard Lucas calling for me to leave. I grabbed my backpack, opened the door, and nearly bumped into someone. My dad’s best friend, and his partner at his doctor’s office, was standing on the front porch with a man I didn’t recognize.
A police officer.
I instantly felt light headed as every detail of my dream came flooding back.

“Mac?”

“Hey, kiddo.
Can I come in?”

Ethan walked out from the kitchen as Lucas pulled me aside, ushering Mac and the officer into the living room.

Ethan was the first to speak. “What’s going on?”

“Well, I have something I need to tell Samantha. You boys should probably hear this, too, though it’s really hard for me. I don’t know how to say it.”

I couldn’t move. I stood at the open door, staring at my dad’s best friend and, as if on cue, the sky opened up. As rain beat on the windows and silence filled the room, my heart ripped painfully into pieces. My vision blurred and I doubled over, emptying the contents of my stomach onto the floor. In a mess of tears and vomit, my world broke open. I shook, unable to control the rise of despair that filled every inch of me.

“Sam!” Lucas knelt beside me and held my hair.

“Oh, God.
Oh, God.”