“Is it cliché to think that this is gonna happen on my birthday? That eighteen marks when my power or light will tempt both Draven and Britain – the moment I’ll have to defend them from Silas?”
“Only if you think so,” my mother said. “Truth is that your light has been powerful enough to do just that from your first breath; the only reason it seems to be brighter now is because you’re realizing it for the first time.”
I nodded again, understanding her simple wisdom. “I’m gonna try and find a way out of here before that happens. Draven has this concert planned; whether it goes as he hopes or not, I’m ready to go to Chara. If I’m a bright light - or whatever you call me - then those people must be, too. They believed solely in love...they can help me protect him.”
My father smiled with pride in his dark eyes as my mom looked from him to me. “Just don’t think that world is an ending for you....it will be a beginning to what you’re really fighting.”
“I just need help,” I mumbled.
My mother stepped forward and reached her arms around me. As she squeezed me tight, she said, “Now you can go without fear of saying goodbye to me. You’ve learned to move your soul to where your mind wishes to take it…you can come to me at any moment.”
I squeezed her back. “If I knew that before – I’d already be gone.”
She extended her arms and looked into my eyes once again. “You wouldn’t have believed me if I told you a few months ago; you had to learn on your own - just like with everything else.”
I smiled shyly, hating that she was right – that she was right to keep me in the dark all these years. “I gotta go; I gotta find Austin.”
She nodded as she let me go. My father smiled at me. I held his gaze as I thought of my room, where I knew my body was sitting. Instantly, I was there again – staring at my father. The thousands of tiny rocks were still across the floor. He broke my stare, and I watched as the pile of rocks began to move and spell out another message for me.
Chapter Fourteen
As the small rocks magically moved along the hard wood floor, I knew a simple message from my father was about to be shown to me. The first word the rocks outlined was ‘ the’, then they shaped the word ‘answers’, then to ‘are all’. I already knew what the next word would be, but I watched patiently as he spelled out the words ‘ around you’.
I nodded once, then the rocks slowly began to rise. The sound of my father’s guitar changed; it changed to the song I’d been working on. Mesmerized by the rocks, I almost didn’t notice that the sound began grow stronger – more demanding. A beat, drums, were laced through the sound of the guitar, one that was in rhythm with the beat of my heart – fast and out of control. The rocks parted into two sections, then the ones on the top fell to the bottom as the ones on the bottom half-rose to meet them. The drums began to beat so violently, I felt the vibration in my soul…I focused on every beat as what was once a fleeting idea was shaped into a song.
Once the rocks were one again, they began to glow brightly in my dim room, then they circled in place – a perfect circle. I felt heat on my skin as I reached for the rock on my bracelet, then my eyes fell into my father’s. The glow of these rocks had changed him; he looked real – I mean, really real. His eyes were glowing, and peace was emanating from his soul. In that instant, all the tiny rocks came together as one and the lamp was restored, sitting perfectly on my side table.
“WOW! Now that was weird,” I heard Madison say. I broke my gaze with my dad to see her standing in the doorway with wide eyes.
I quickly looked back at my father, who winked at me before he faded away.
“What was that?” Madison asked as she stepped into the room.
“An answer,” I said quietly as I sat on the edge of my bed, desperately trying to hold on to the memory of those drums – the backbone of my song.
“To what?” she asked.
“I don’t know,” I mumbled as I looked at her. She had showered and was ready for whatever we were going to do today. She was wearing dark jeans like mine, with layered, tight shirts that reflected her small frame. Her dark green hoodie seemed to amplify her eyes even more.
“How did the phone call with your mom go? Or has that happened yet?” she asked as she came to my side.
“It happened. Not a call – face to face, a family meeting,” I said as my thoughts raced through everything my mother had said – what my father had shown me. My phone beeped loudly, and I looked to my nightstand to see that it was now fully charged.
“Face to face - like you went through your memories to where she was? By yourself?!” Madison asked, clearly alarmed.
“Yeah,” I said as I reached for my phone. “It really isn’t hard. It was just like really being there.”
“It scares me,” Madison said. “I mean, I’m worried I’ll get stuck somewhere or something.”
I turned my bracelet on my wrist before I scrolled through the missed calls and texts my adventure had caused yesterday. “Get a charm or something that will help you focus on home,” I mumbled as words began to circle in my mind. I felt lyrics coming to life so fast and so fierce, they were taking over my thoughts.
“You sound like Aden,” she said shortly, clearly not agreeing that any kind of charm would bring you safely back to the world we lived in.
Aden…I needed Aden to create that beat. My finger scrolled to his name, and I hesitated before texting him. I knew if I called him right now, we’d spend all day working on it, and I didn’t have time for that. I had to find Austin – find a way out of here. I closed my eyes as my hand silently moved to the sound I heard in my memories. I knew I could remember it for a few more hours – and show him later.
I scrolled through to find Draven’s name. Ignoring the heartbreaking pleas he had texted last night, the ones begging me to tell him where I was, I opened the text box and typed: ‘A devil risen an angel fallen this world will not be our prison our fate is calling’. I read the words over and over, then handed the phone to Madison. “Does this sound bad? I mean, those are lyrics I just thought of for the song we’re working on, but I don’t want him to take it the wrong way.”
Curiously she took my phone and read the words a few times. “That’s fierce, but not in a bad way. It reminds me of you two.”
“Right, but he isn’t too fond of the dark side in him. I don’t wanna make it worse or make him mad.”
“Look, Charlie, you know him better than anyone else. This sounds perfect to me. If I was a dark shadow, I’d come when I heard that…it would tell me that anything beautiful is possible – even for a darkness like me.”
I took my phone back and read the words once more before I hit ‘Send’. I followed the text with another that said: ‘that just came to me – well dad helped me come up with that you don’t have to use it.’
Madison was watching what I was texting, and once I hit send she asked, “Was that what that rock display was all about?”
“I’m sure there’s more to what he meant by that, but at least it helped me come up with those lyrics.”
Her eyes moved across my confused expression. I instantly felt guilty for sending that to him – what if he took it the wrong way?
“You want to talk about where you ran off to yesterday?” she asked.
I looked at her. “Do you wanna talk about your dreams with Britain and that other guy?”
“I told you I would when I understood them.”
“Well, I’ll tell you about who I met yesterday when I understand him.”
“Who?” she repeated.
Before I could answer her, my phone vibrated. I looked down to see Draven’s response. ‘Perfect – love you.’
A relieved smile came across my face.
“Charlie – who did you meet yesterday?” Madison asked impatiently.
“It doesn’t matter. We’re leaving, remember?” I said as my confidence grew.
“If you’re serious about leaving, I’m getting that tattoo before we do anything today.”
I raised my eyebrows. “Seriously?!”
“Yeah, seriously. I think you should get it, too,” she said as she raised her eyebrows.
“What? Are you crazy? I’m not even old enough – at least not for a few days.”
“Kara will sign for you. I already asked her.”
“You convinced Kara to sign for me to get a tattoo?”
“It wasn’t hard once I told her about my dreams. She already cleared it with your mom. Ask if you don’t believe me.”
“You told Kara about your dreams, but you won’t tell me?”
“I told her about my nightmares – not the other dreams.”
“Then tell me. You can’t just walk up to someone and say, ‘Get this tattoo’ and not say why. That’s, like, completely permanent; not something you decide to do in an instant.”
“I didn’t decide in an instant; I’ve been thinking about it for months. I even had the artist draw out the tattoo I wanted – met him, the whole nine yards.”
“Fine. You’ve had months, and I’ve had like a day - and I still don’t know what nightmare is causing you to permanently mark your body.”
“OK, fine,” she said as she stood and began to pace. “Imagine this: a dark room, a pool of water that reflects the stars in the center of it. Even though we’re inside, the weather is fierce – wind, lightning, thunder – and there are other girls there, ones that kinda look like me. Bianca is there, and she’s changing form over and over again – racing across the room, doing everything in her power to infuriate the girl who’s causing the fierce weather, showing her unthinkable images – and that girl is aiming at Bianca and her illusions. The only thing keeping her from killing either of us is that mark – because she knows that because we have that mark, we aren’t Bianca – we’re on her side.”
My eyes grew wide. “Whoa…I think maybe you need to hold off on the caffeine intake...that’s a wicked dream.”
“One that I have every time I close my eyes – one that’s going to keep us alive if you just get this tattoo,” she argued.
“Fine. I’ll get this – but only to calm you down because I need you to be strong for me. I need you to help me figure out how to get out of here before something really bad happens.”
“To who?” she asked as her skin flushed.
“Draven…Britain,” I said, holding her gaze
“Both of them,” she said in a cracked voice.
I nodded. “I may need you to help Britain – not give your heart away or anything; just help him while I help Draven…if we don’t get out of here before that moment comes.”
“Who told you that?” she asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” I said as I reached for my phone. I found my mom’s number and texted: ‘did you say I could get a tattoo??????’
“His eyes are made of honey, aren’t they?” Madison said as she crossed her arms.
I blushed as the words left her lips and the haunting memory of Silas flooded my mind. I stood abruptly to get my bag, which was still across the room where my father had tossed it before. “You could say that…how did you know?”
“Dream,” she mumbled.
My phone vibrated, and I looked down to see my mother’s response. ‘After our last conversation you should know how much power I put behind dreams – do whatever you need to do to keep you safe.’
“Wow,” I said as I read the text again. “You must have been really convincing about that dream. How long is this going to take? I want to find Austin – one way or the other.”
“Like an hour. It’s not big or anything.”
“Let’s go,” I said as I turned to race down the steps.
Monroe was still in the kitchen with her tutor, but Kara was nowhere to be seen. I smiled at her as I looked over the paper she was writing. She glanced up at me, then slid a paper out from under hers and handed it to me. I opened the folded paper to see an address written there with a name: Wesley. It took me a second, but I remembered that was the name of the guy Austin had led here; I’d only seen him once at the diner after Draven’s last concert, and that night I didn’t even know who I was, much less comprehend that he was from another dimension. Around the address she had drawn countless Ankhs.
My eyes rose to meet hers. “Thanks,” I said with a smirk.
“Is she almost done? Can she come with me?” I asked her tutor. I was beginning to rely heavily on the insight Monroe always seemed to have.
Monroe shook her head no, then looked down and began writing again. “Well, she could be, but it seems like she’s determined not only to catch up, but work ahead.”
I didn’t bother to argue or beg Monroe to come with me. I trusted her sixth sense. Madison and Kara walked in the kitchen right then. Kara was on her phone; I could tell by how she was silently listening that she was talking to mom.
I reached in my bag and grabbed my keys, then squeezed Monroe’s shoulder. “Call me when you’re done – I’ll come back for you.”
Kara grabbed her purse and keys, too. “Are you riding with us?” I asked.
She shook her head no. I wasn’t really surprised; I was sure she was eager to get back here – that she had some story she was working on.
I slid in my driver seat just as Madison climbed in.
“This is a big commitment on my part,” I said as I backed out of the driveway. “But I know it’s shallow in comparison to asking you to help me with Britain – but you have to know that I really need you to do that.”