In front of me, walking slowly around the large gothic headstones, I saw a small figure approaching. As it came closer, I felt a horrible guilt absorb me. I didn’t move a muscle, halfway hoping that the dusk of this aged graveyard would hide me.
Chapter Ten
Monroe moved silently around the stones as she stepped closer to me. I pushed my hands into my hoodie, realizing for the first time that I was freezing. Reality was coming back to me, and all at once it felt like those moments alone with Silas were nothing more than a dream. The desire to help Monroe and Madison find their place, to save the dammed, and most of all protect Draven from this world of dreams – all of it became my focus, and with that focus a newfound hatred and vow for revenge surfaced as Bianca’s memory came to me.
Monroe sat down next to me and looped her arm through mine.
“How did you find me?” I whispered weakly. She remained silent. “Sorry I didn’t come back for you like I promised…I was distracted.”
“By Silas?” she asked in her innocent voice.
I glanced to my side, surprised, that I managed to get her to speak once again. “Yeah.”
She nodded as if she knew that.
“How do you know him?” I asked. The fact that she had seen him – that he knew her name – forced me to conceive the idea that he was real, that everything about him was real - and that terrified me. I felt so guilty for being alone with him, for witnessing those memories, for feeling his gentle lips against mine.
“He saved me,” Monroe whispered.
“From what?” I asked tenderly.
She looked down as her hair hid her innocent face from me. “From my dad…from the darkness.”
I felt an ache in my chest, and it took all I had to look strong and calm. “Is your dad alive…?”
Her head moved slowly from side to side, and I felt the air leave my lungs. What was she saying – that Silas killed him? Killed him because he was dark?
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled, trying to fight the nausea that was climbing up my throat. I knew I had just spent the afternoon with someone who apparently not only had reason, but the power to place a final division between me and Draven.
“Why?” she asked, looking up at me.
“There had to be another way – ending someone is not the way.”
“He – he was never alive…he never stepped into this realm.”
“What?” I asked. As I felt my heart began to race, I gripped her arm tighter.
“He lives in the dream world…Silas brought my mother to this reality – to this realm of life...my father will not come here…he will not give up his power to find us.”
“Where is your mom?” I asked as I tried to fathom what she was saying.
“With him.”
“In the dream world?” I clarified.
“Yeah.”
“Against her will?” I asked, feeling a desire like no other to go to this place.
“No…she went there to tell him to leave Grayson and Winston alone…but when she saw him, she couldn’t help herself…she could not leave his side – she loved him too much.”
“What was he doing to your brothers? What do you mean, ‘calling them’?”
“My mother is not as balanced as you – or your mom…we have more of our father than our mother within us…the desire to walk his path is unyielding, and it was calling them to that life…invading their dreams, then surfacing with the slightest negative emotion.”
“Like what’s happening with Draven,” I mumbled.
The placid look in her eyes told me I was wrong. “My brothers are young souls…Draven is not…he submitted to this calling long ago…then you managed to make him change his mind.”
“What do you mean?”
“In another life, you asked him not to be the person he was, to give up this power - and when he listened to you, he was thrust into this life…he was blinded to his past deeds, and forced to begin again, only to be tested, put through hell later in life.”
“Draven’s mom was not dark; his dad can’t see. Who told you this? How do you know this?”
Monroe stared into my eyes with utter compassion. “Draven was placed into the brightest, most tempting place that could be imagined....when I listen...I hear some say he came home, back to his beginning....I hear others say it was a punishment....that neither you or him belong in this life....I ignore them both, you’re here now, and fate, no matter how twisted the path is...will find its way. Every action sets a sea of reactions in place…”
“Wh – what are you saying?” I said as I stared disbelievingly at her. Step into a life? Thrown into a life? Was she saying this was my fault?
“Your innocent act to protect Draven’s soul – to step into this world – brought balance - it brought the darkness to its knees.”
I broke my gaze with her and stared out at the stones in the now dark graveyard. “Are you saying that if I hadn’t asked Draven to step away from the life he had…if I had not chosen to follow him…that my father would be alive? That Aden would be an only child, and this battle never would have come to this world?”
Monroe moved closer to me. “You’re seeing this the way the darkness would want you to. Say it another way; say that you stopped Draven’s soul from pulling the life from the dammed to gain power, that you showed him how powerful love was – the light was. That when you saw his punishment, the darkness push him into this world, that you followed him to protect him from forgetting all that you showed him. Say that because of you, Aden has a brother, that your father was the given the chance to have a normal life – to have a part of him live on in you. Say that your mother was finally able to grasp her power and not hide from it when you took your first breath.”
I let out a tense sigh. “She hides from it...she hides in grief – grief that I caused.”
Silence took over for countless minutes as I tried to fathom a past that I couldn’t recall. I told myself that I had to have really loved Draven to have taken risks that were so steep. That idea wasn’t foreign to me; I’d always loved him, but the memories Silas gave me showed me that in another realm of time, I loved another.
“I can’t do anything about the past - especially one I can’t recall. I have to figure out what to do with my future…how to end what I’ve begun.”
She didn’t bother to say anything in response; instead, she calmly stared forward. I let my eyes follow her gaze and saw two figures walking closer to us. I instinctively put my arm around Monroe and asked in my mind a simple question: Who are you? As that thought emerged, images of Grayson and Winston danced in my mind. They weren’t letting me see beyond the surface of who they were, only telling me not to be alarmed.
Grayson stepped closer, and Winston held back. I was sure he wasn’t excited to come face-to-face with me.
“I’m not sure how much longer I can make excuses for you,” Grayson said as he reached me.
“Excuse me?” I replied with a heavy, sarcastic tone.
Through the shadows, I saw him smile. “Sorry…I guess that sounded rude…I meant that everyone is starting to doubt that we’ve spent the afternoon sightseeing; they’re looking for us to come back.”
“You told them that?” I asked bleakly, wondering why he felt compelled to lie on my behalf.
“It was insinuated that saying such a lie would be wise,” Grayson said as he tilted his head toward his baby sister.
I looked to my side at Monroe. “An alibi – nice. I wonder how you knew to do that?” I mumbled.
“Who knows?” Winston said shortly.
Grayson glared over his shoulder, telling Winston to watch his tone. Then he looked back at me. “I learned long ago not to question the notions Monroe has.”
“I thought you said she doesn’t speak to you?”
“She doesn’t; she shows me what she thinks.”
“And today she told you to lie?”
Grayson nodded as he stared at Monroe. It was easy to see that he lived in awe of her. “The moment you left her today, she sent a text to me, asking for me to come to her – and when I saw her, she showed me you sitting here and gave me every reason to believe that you needed to be alone this afternoon…so yeah, I made up a story.”
I looked to my side at Monroe. I knew there was no way I could have made it to this place by the time she had shown Grayson that I was here. I was starting to believe that this little girl who hid behind this Goth image could see the future.
“I don’t know if that was a good idea…you might want to come clean before Draven sees you – you don’t deserve to take the heat for what I did today.”
“Like he could see us,” Winston spouted.
Grayson glared at him once more before he looked at me. “We block each other fairly well – no worries. You ready? It’s freezing out here.”
I stood up slowly, and Monroe followed my lead. I walked silently past both Grayson and Winston. I could only hope I was as good at blocking Draven as they were. I weaved around the stones, careful to watch where I stepped. Just as I reached the gate, I heard a sinister laugh. I looked to the direction of it – and from behind a Celtic cross headstone, Bianca stepped into my view. “Leaving so soon? I just got here. You know what that means – the party has officially begun.”
Anger engulfed every part of me as I charged toward her. I’d almost reached her when I felt arms go around me and hold me back. I looked up to see Grayson holding me. “Let me go! I’m gonna kill her!”
Winston came to my left, and Monroe to my right. Bianca looked at Winston and winked; he laughed in response, like he wouldn’t dare step into her trap. I instantly developed a newfound respect for him. Bianca’s alluring looks were the one thing I feared the most. She rolled her eyes at him, then looked back to me as I continued to struggle to get free from Grayson. It didn’t matter that he was thin and rather lanky; he managed to show an immense amount of strength.
“Aww, my best friend is mad at me,” Bianca said as she stepped closer to me. I stopped my struggle so I could glare into her. “That’s a shame. If anyone should be mad, it should be me; you’re the one who’s ignored me.”
“I didn’t ignore you; I just refused to play your games – this illusion. I know what you are, what you’re capable of - and I’m not afraid of you. Go to hell.”
“My favorite place,” Bianca said as she glanced to my side at Monroe. “Well, well, well...looks like you’ve made some new friends.” She tilted her head as she looked at Monroe. “Does daddy know where you are? I’m sure he’d want to see you.”
Grayson’s arms fell from mine as he pushed me behind him. Winston reached to hold him back, finding it harder than he thought. I used that distraction to push Bianca against the stone she was in front of. She tried to fight me, but I was either stronger than her or too full of rage to be stopped.
“You stay away from my life! From everything and everyone in my life! Do you hear me?!”
A wicked smile came to the corners of her lips. “You started this. At least I can agree that you have good taste in men.”
I braced my forearm across her chest and watched as she struggled to breath. “You came to me...you could have moved on to another couple...you – walked – into – my – life!”
She smirked. “No – you have this all wrong. I found someone, someone I wanted to be with that I actually gave a damn about - and what do I discover?” She tried to push me back, but I refused to budge. “That he wanted you, that he regretting not listening to you in a wicked past, and now he was waiting for his chance to know you, to have you as his own, to repay you for saving him from Silas - and he had the audacity to make me help him do just that.”
“Of all people, you should know that I don’t want to be with Britain.”
She rolled her eyes. “Right. Anyways, I’ve moved on…of course, before I moved on to a bigger and better idea, I had to see if there was a chance that I could steal Draven away…tsk, tsk, though; that was fun…I’m over it now…I know your little secret.”
“I have no secrets,” I said through gritted teeth.
Bianca laughed. “I beg to differ…if Draven makes a move for your power, if either of them do - Silas will kill them…I like the sound of that; it just proves that no one tells me no without paying the price. Revenge is mine, and I don’t have to lift one single finger; all I have to do is keep whispering sweet nothings into their ears, growing the dark side that called me to them in the first place.”
“You come near Draven again, I’ll kill you – do you hear me?!”
She laughed a wicked laugh. “Girl, he’s the one that keeps coming back for more. Apparently, he doesn’t want to be with me, but he doesn’t mind toying with the idea.”
My face fell, and she let out another laugh. I felt someone trying to pull me off her, but I refused to move.
“You’re lying!” I screamed through gritted teeth.
“Have a look, Charlie – or has he chosen to keep you blind so he can have his cake and eat it, too?”
I didn’t question her words; instead, I thought the question: When was the first and last time you saw Draven? In that instant, I wasn’t in the eerie graveyard; no, I was in a much darker place. One second there would be a town before me, the next a city - then out of nowhere, darkness; all the while, I heard thunder rumbling and lightning threatening the horizon. In the distance, I saw two figures: one man and one woman. I wanted to be closer, and in that instant I was. Before me was the most nauseating scene I’d ever witnessed: Bianca had her arms around Draven as her lips moved across his neck, then whispered into his ear. Though he didn’t smile, I could see the lust in his eyes, the hesitation he fought before he pushed her way and told her never to touch him again.