Awaken (11 page)

Though everyone here was still doing
that.

Shutting the door behind me, I headed for the
house. Whatever damage the bookstore guy – Maddox told us his name
was Jesse, though from the way he said the man’s name now, he made
it sound like a curse – had done to me seemed to have healed. I
wasn’t dizzy and my head only occasionally ached. For all intents
and purposes, I was fine.

Which the doctor thought was incredible.

And I didn’t care.

Jesse had hit me really hard, it was true,
and the bookshelves had as well. There’d been a lot of blood, or so
I gathered from the looks on Baylie and Noah’s faces whenever the
topic of the stitches on my forehead came up, and some kind of
swelling that’d since disappeared. But now I was fine. My trip to
Santa Lucina had been filled with nothing but drama – loads and
loads
of drama – but now… now I was fine.

And I’d keep anything else weird from
happening if I had to lock myself in the guest room.

Fighting off a scowl at the thought, I
followed Peter inside. Diane and Baylie hovered near me, worry
practically radiating from them, while Noah trailed after us, one
hand on his cell phone as he conferred with Maddox, who’d been
covering shifts at the bookstore since Jesse disappeared. I hoped
we’d just be able to have a quiet evening, doing nothing if at all
possible. I wanted one day of normalcy in this place. It’d give me
something nice to remember, compared to everything else.

Especially since my parents could show up at
any time.

The scowl tried to return. Dad left a message
with the Delaneys the day before, saying nothing beyond the fact
they would be back soon. He gave no reason for what had taken them
so long, though given that they hadn’t looked good the last time
I’d seen them, it worried me. But meanwhile, they were apparently
on their way.

And so I waited.

“Go ahead and have a seat in the living
room,” Diane said to me as the front door closed. “Would you like
some iced tea?”

“That’s okay. Thank you, though. I’m just
going to go upstairs, if that’s alright?”

She looked worried.

I gave her something approaching a smile and
then headed to the second floor, working to ignore the concern that
followed me like a cloud. I didn’t want to leave when my parents
came back – the panicked, fishhook feeling returned at the thought
– but staying here was starting to become just as
uncomfortable.

The guest room was blessedly quiet. Sinking
onto the bed, I looked to the window, watching the blue water and
the equally blue horizon.

“Hey.”

I turned. By the door, Baylie stood, watching
me nervously.

“Hey,” I replied, feeling guilty for the way
I wanted to grimace at her expression.

“You alright?” she pressed.

A bit of the grimace slipped through.

She winced. “Sorry.”

Her gaze dropped to the floor.

“What is it?” I asked.

She hesitated, and then crossed the room and
sat down on the bed next to mine.

“I just…” She glanced to the open doorway. “I
feel so bad about what happened.”

My brow furrowed.

“I was the one who insisted we go,” she
explained, a touch desperately. “I knew those girls were missing
and I should have thought–”

“What? That the psycho who kidnapped them
worked at the bookstore?”

She looked pained.

“Baylie, seriously. It wasn’t your
fault.”

Footsteps in the hall made me turn. Noah
paused outside the door, looking between us with concern.

“You guys doing okay?”

“Fine,” I said, struggling to keep from
snapping simply because I was tired of the question. “Baylie and I
were… talking.”

I wasn’t sure what else to tell him. I didn’t
want to embarrass her.

For a moment, Noah studied Baylie, and
something in his expression made me think he guessed what the
conversation had been about anyway.

“She tell you about the pepper spray?” he
asked me.

Confused, I shook my head.

He lifted an eyebrow at his stepsister.
Baylie grimaced.

“She was the first to see what the guy was
doing,” Noah explained when she didn’t say anything. “She
pepper-sprayed him. Made him let you go.”

The memory came back. “I heard someone
scream.”

Noah nodded. “You need to stop blaming
yourself,” he told Baylie.

She looked down.

“Baylie,” I said. “Please? It’s not your
fault.” I paused. “You probably saved my life.”

She swallowed, her face taking on the same
green cast I’d seen for days, whenever she or the others thought
back on what things must have looked like in the bookstore.

I turned to the window, determinedly ignoring
the expression.

“He was just so…” Baylie trailed off.

“Insane,” I supplied, attempting to keep my
voice even as I glanced back at them.

Noah’s face made it clear he thought the
same, possibly with a few more colorful words thrown in.

“But I’m
fine
,” I continued.
“Really.”

Baylie hesitated a moment, and then
nodded.

“So you want to go shopping again?” I
asked.

Incredulous, she looked up at me. I
grinned.

She made an exasperated noise, but a smile
tugged at her lips. “I swear, you’d tell jokes in the middle of
anything.”

Holding onto the grin, I pushed to my feet,
though her words weren’t quite true.

I was just going to be fine if it killed
me.

“Okay, so no shopping,” I said, my tone
lighter than I actually felt. “What else can we do? Volleyball?
Maybe a game or something?”

They hesitated.

“Come on,” I said, almost feeling ready to
beg. “Let’s do something normal, okay?”

“You play poker?” Noah asked.

“No, but I’ll learn.”

He smiled.

By the bed, Baylie took a breath, almost
visibly pushing her concern back inside. “Watch out, though. He’s
vicious.”

Noah gave her a mock glare.

We headed for the stairs again, and this
time, Baylie intercepted Diane before she could worry at me
further. Noah grabbed a deck of cards from an end table in the
living room, and in short order we were set up to play.

Hours passed and by the time dinner rolled
around, I’d managed to win a few hands. We took a brief break to
eat and then went back to the game, with Maddox joining us after he
returned from work.

And for a while, I finally felt like life was
normal.

It was late when we called it quits, and
Diane and Peter had long since gone to bed. Waving goodnight to the
guys, Baylie and I headed back to our room. As she climbed beneath
the covers, I pulled open the window to let in the cool night air,
and when I turned back around, I realized she’d already fallen
asleep.

I grinned as I changed into my pajamas and
then got into bed. She’d stayed awake at the hospital for days; it
was about time the girl got some rest. The pillow felt good beneath
my head as I lay down, and on the ceiling, the skylight showed a
beautiful view of the stars.

But sleep didn’t want to come.

It’d been like this ever since the first
night in the hospital. Lying around all day meant I didn’t use much
energy, and so when it came time to sleep, I simply couldn’t. My
whole body wouldn’t stop buzzing.

Rolling over, I closed my eyes, trying to
will myself into unconsciousness. Time crawled by, my mind dipping
briefly into confusing dreams about the previous day before
surfacing again. The soothing ocean was nowhere to be found, and my
muscles wouldn’t stop twitching.

I scowled, pushing away from the bed and
looking around the room. Maybe if I walked around the house for a
while, or got something warm to drink, I’d finally be able to
sleep. But anything was better than lying here all night, gradually
turning into a cramped ball of nervous energy.

Leaving the room silently, I walked down the
hall. The air was heavy and still, and carried the slightly
unsettling sense of people sleeping all around me – people who
might wake up if I was too loud. Wincing at the stairs, I crept to
the first floor, doing my best to avoid making the steps creak.

The kitchen tile was cold beneath my bare
feet, and through the windows of the dining room, the moon bathed
the whole space in silver light. By the doorway, I paused, suddenly
captivated by the sight of the bluffs and the water beyond.

And I headed for the back door.

The brass lock gave soundlessly as I flipped
it over. I pulled open the door, cool air blowing past me into the
kitchen, and then tugged it closed as I stepped out onto the
chilled concrete of the patio. The sound of the waves grew louder
as I crossed the grass to the stairway and then descended the steps
to the beach.

At the base of the stairs, I paused, caught
by the urge to just walk into the waves, as though the ocean in my
dreams and delusions would be the same as the black water in front
of me. My hand gripped the railing as I struggled against the
feeling, knowing that down where no one could see me and while the
whole family was asleep, there was no way that a midnight swim
could possibly be a good plan.

A moment passed. The compulsion faded.
Swallowing hard, I sank onto the wooden steps. Drawing a shaky
breath of the salty air, I wrapped my arms around my knees and
watched the waves.

The hairs on my skin rose.

My brow furrowed at the sudden sense I wasn’t
alone. Heart pounding, I took the rail and pulled myself to my
feet, getting ready to jog back up the stairs.

“Hello,” came a familiar voice.

My gaze snapped to the right. From a shadowed
pile of rocks at the base of the bluffs, a form stepped out into
the moonlight.

The boy from the ocean.

I retreated a step, cursing my stupidity at
coming out here in my pajama shorts and t-shirt, and leaving
Baylie’s pepper spray in the house.

He paused. The moonlight shone on his black
hair, the strands glistening wetly like he’d just come from the
water, and below his smooth chest, he only wore a pair of dark swim
trunks. His brow drew down at the sight of my caution, and he held
up his hands peaceably.

“I’m not going to hurt you,” he said as if
confused why I thought that would be the case.

I didn’t move.

“I just wanted to talk,” he continued in the
same tone.

“Why?” I hesitated. “Who are you?”

“I was going to ask you that.”

My foot moved back a step.

“Okay, sorry. I just…” He shook his head.
“You can call me Zeke. And you are?”

“Why’re you watching me?”

He paused. “You’re different.”

My brow furrowed.

“From me,” he elaborated. “The rest of
us.”

My expression didn’t change.

Frustration twisted his face for a heartbeat.
“Look, I’ve already broken like… a dozen laws by helping you back
at the hospital, and being here isn’t doing me much good either.
But I see you living here like a human, I felt what you did to the
water the other night, and I saw what happened the next day too.
I’d
love
to know what’s going on, so…”

I stared.

“You want to give me some help here?” he
finished. “I’m just trying to figure this out.”

My heart was pounding so hard, it felt like
it was crushing my chest. Shaking, I backed up another step.

“Look,” he said, starting forward.

I gasped, my hand coming up defensively, and
he froze.

“Stay away from me,” I warned.

“I know what you are, okay? I just want to
know what you did.”

“Come any closer, and I scream enough to wake
the town, you get me?”

“I told you. I’m not going to hurt you.”

A scoff escaped me.

He paused. “I mean it. I only want to know
how you did it. How…” He gestured carefully to the top of the
bluffs. “Well, any of this, really.”

I didn’t have a clue what to say. He was
insane, that much was obvious. Insane… and able to speak to me
underwater. While swimming God knew how deep too.

Trembling, I swallowed. “What are you?”

“Dehaian,” he replied. My expression stayed
the same, and his lip twitched. “You know. Fish. Same as you.”

My head shook. “I… you’re…”

The words refused to come. My legs were
unsteady beneath me, and if not for the edge of the wooden rail
biting into my palm, I’d have believed I was dreaming.

Though given how vivid my dreams had been
lately, there was still a good chance.

“I’m not…” I tried. The words still wouldn’t
come. They were too stupid. Too insane. I wasn’t going to argue
about whether or not I was a
fish
. “You stay away from me,”
I said instead. “From the house, from anywhere. I see you again,
I’m calling the cops.”

He hesitated. “I saw you underwater. I saw
you changing. I know what you are.”

“I’m human, you freak!” I yelled, my voice
breaking.

Gasping, I started up the stairs.

“Then why’d the sieranchine work on you in
the hospital?”

I froze. Turning, I looked back to where he
stood at the base of the stairway.

“I snuck into the hospital,” he said. “I used
some of our medicine on you, in case it’d help.” He paused. “It
did.”

On the banister, my hand shook. Amazing
recovery, the doctor had called it. A sudden and swift turnaround
from when they’d brought me in. He’d been stunned.

And I’d just felt like I had enough energy to
fly to the moon.

“Why’d you do that?” I managed.

He shrugged a shoulder, not answering.

“Do you know where Jesse is?”

His brow furrowed. “Who?”

“The guy at the bookstore.”

“I don’t know any guy at the bookstore.”

“He attacked me.”

“I don’t–”

“He looked like you.”

Zeke paused. “How?”