Inevitable (31 page)

He jogged around to my side. “I was on my way to the game when I saw you standing here.”

I shoved him away from me, the horrifying memory of my embarrassing debut at his house churning my stomach. “Well, keep going. I’ve got help on the way.”

He grabbed my hand. “Jayne. Don’t be angry.”

Those were the wrong words to say. “Excuse me?” All my frustration and anger at the situation, at Dana, at him blew out of me. “Don’t be
angry
? You break up with me through a text message. And when I go over to your house to talk to you, who do I find but your
ex
girlfriend. The one you told me you didn’t like anymore. Remember?”

Aaron’s eyes narrowed. “The way I recall, you didn’t seem very interested. In fact, when you came over to my house,
you
were about to apologize.”

“That was before!”

“Before what?”

“Before I saw that you had already replaced me!” I succeeded in getting my hand out of his grip. I trembled with emotion. “It’s her you want anyway, not me! You always choose her in the end! Just get away from me!” I pushed his chest with both hands.

Aaron took two steps backward, his brows pulling together. “Jayne.”

“I mean it! Go!” I closed my hands into fists, blinking hard to keep the tears at bay. Aaron still stood there, a pitiful expression on his face.

I didn’t want his pity and I didn’t need his help. I climbed back into my car and locked all the doors. Then I pressed my hands over my ears and sobbed. I coughed and took several breaths. Where was my phone? I needed to talk to Dana. I reached over to the passenger seat, groping for it.

Not there. I stared at the vacant seat for a moment before remembering I’d dropped the phone on the street.  Had I called the police? I couldn’t be certain if I’d actually hit send or not before tossing my phone on a one-way flight.

I took a deep breath and exhaled, closing my eyes. Then I hit the unlock switch and grabbed the handle just as there was a soft tap on my window.

The tears started again and I bit my lip. “Aaron, I don’t want to talk,” I said, opening the door and stepping into the street. “You’re just delaying—” I stopped.

The man in front of me wasn’t Aaron. The jagged scar cutting across his neck gave him away, and I caught my breath. It was
him
. The murderer. The expression on his face was so familiar, as if I knew him. My heart did a staccato dance in my chest. I opened my mouth to scream, but he darted behind me and pressed his hand against my lips.

“Hush, Jayne,” he whispered. “Don’t make this any harder than it is.” He chuckled, a harsh, grating noise next to my ear. “What were you about to say? Something about delaying the inevitable?”

He had found me.

The blood pumped so hard in my chest I thought I would faint. Where was Aaron? Had he gotten away? My eyes swiveled from side to side, searching the deserted road for his car. I could only hope he’d listened to me and left.

The killer kept one hand pressed to my mouth while he fiddled with something, and then he gagged me with a piece of cloth. “There now, Jayne, I know you’ll keep quiet.”

That voice. My mystery caller.

He clasped my hands together and tied them up. “I hate to have to do this to you, but after all, I don’t trust you. Let’s walk.” He moved me around my car. I stumbled under his hands, nearly falling into the ditch. We cleared it and walked into the pasture, ripe with strands of wheat. I breathed rapidly through my nose, feeling as though I couldn’t get enough oxygen.

“Hush, Jayne,” he soothed, one hand on my neck, pushing me forward. “You’ll get your chance. I’m dying to know how you found me. Well, not really dying. Figure of speech.”

The grains of wheat reached up to my armpits. Stopping, my stalker pushed on my shoulder until I sat. Then he sat down next to me. The prominent scar on his neck jumped out at me like a neon light. The grass trembled and my captor froze, eyes narrowing as he searched the field. I was shaking so hard I thought my teeth would rattle out of my mouth.

Another man stepped into the corner of our corn shelter. “You got her.” The baseball cap  pulled low over his face didn’t mask the familiar voice. I stiffened, the fear flying right out of me as surprise and disbelief took over.

“Mr. Livingston!” I tried to scream the words through my gag, but they came out in muffled grunts. “Help me!” I flailed about the best I could.

My Spanish teacher did not look at me, and my captor kicked me in the ribs. “Shut up.” He turned back to Mr. Livingston, and I realized then why he looked familiar: they had the same light blue eyes, the same high forehead and light brown hair. They had to be brothers.

The knowledge hit me harder than the kick to the ribs had. My hope sank like a lead ball in the ocean, and a feeling very much like despair flooded my limbs. I began to sob in earnest, tears flowing down my face and into my gag.

“I got her,” my captor agreed. “Thanks to you. Say your goodbyes and then watch the road. She’ll be dead when you see her again.”

“I’m sorry, Jayne. I told you to stay out of it.” Still, Mr. Livingston didn’t look at me.

“I trusted you!” I tried to shout. Instead I just coughed and sputtered.

“Your silencer on?” the murderer asked.

Mr. Livingston held up a black pistol with a gloved hand.

“Keep guard, then.” My captor turned back to me as Mr. Livingston strode off. “So, you’ve met my brother. He wasn’t exactly thrilled when I decided to move home, but he’s been obliging. Lucky for me, he’s been keeping an eye out for anyone acting suspicious.”

I’d been betrayed. Dots flashed before my vision, but I couldn’t pass out now. I struggled for breath, sucking around the cloth, trying to get air. I leaned my head over, the weight of it carrying my body sideways into the dirt.

“Now, Jayne, I have a few questions for you,” he said softly. He squatted next to me, his elbows level with the black boots. The last remaining sunlight glinted off the point of a knife in his hand. “If you scream, I will cut your throat. Even if someone finds you, it will be too late. Got it?”

I did. I couldn’t take my eyes off the knife. How long would it take to die from a cut throat? In my vision of Hannah, it happened very quickly. Did it really happen like that? Or did the mind speed up the process to spare the victim?

He grabbed my hair and yanked my head back. “Got it?” he whispered.

I forced my head to move up and down.

“All right.” He lowered my gag to my chin, then pushed me back to a sitting position. “How did you find me?”

My head swam. Salt and pepper spots floated in front of my eyes. I cleared my throat. “You won’t believe me.”

“Try me.” He ran his fingers over the knife, the smooth edge glinting in the dying sunlight.

I knew I wouldn’t live to see tomorrow. I hoped it didn’t hurt too bad. I hated paper cuts. “I met Hannah.”

“Hannah?”

“Short, brown hair. Black leather jacket.”

“Ah, yes. So? She never met me before that night.”

“I have a sort of psychic gift. And when I met her, I saw that you would kill her.” How would my mother react when she found my body? Was this why Beth turned to drugs? To forget my death?

Was this why Aaron got back together with Libby? Because I was dead?

“Really.” His dry, unemotional response indicated that he didn’t believe me.

In spite of the situation, irritation spiked through me. What more did he want from me? “Fine. What’s your explanation?”

He remained silent a moment. The grasses around us rustled as a breeze blew through, pausing to tickle the hairs on my neck as well. “No, I suppose that is the only way it makes sense. Well, that being the case, I’m sorry to have to kill such a unique talent. But you are a threat. Who else did you tell?”

Dana. My throat constricted. She was in danger. “Just the police,” I whispered, trying to sound calm. As calm as I could be for this situation.

“Are you sure? Not even your pretty blond friend?”

I trembled. “No. I didn’t tell her.”

He leaned over and pushed me back against the corn stalks. “Any questions for me, Jayne?”

I wanted to ask how he’d found me, but it seemed so obvious now. Everything I’d told Mr. Livingston, he’d told his brother. “How did you catch me?”

“I’ve been following you for days. I put too much air into your tire a few days ago. I knew it was just a matter of time before it blew. You were zooming along the road back there and the tire overheated. Good fortune for me that you chose a secluded area. Anything else?”

I felt a helpless, numb feeling pervading my mind and heart, similar to the one I’d experienced during my vision of Hannah. I had plenty of questions, but suddenly they didn’t really seem to matter. “Don’t hurt me.”

“I don’t have time for games, Jayne, and I promised my brother I’d be quick. Good-bye.”

I closed my eyes and felt the sharp blade slide against my throat. He grunted loudly. The pressure let up and the ground shook next to me. I jerked back from the burning pain, my scream silenced by the gag. Warm liquid flowed down my neck and a bright light blinded me.

“You wanted to talk to me, Dekla?”

I opened my eyes to see the tall blond woman floating in front of me. Her white gown drifted around her bare feet. I could see her features in sharp detail now; the high cheekbones, the pearly white skin, the stormy blue eyes.

“Laima,” I said. My voice left my throat with a ringing clarity. I touched my hand to my neck, a jolt of surprise going through me as I recalled my last memory.

“Yes,” Laima said, arching a pencil-thin dark eyebrow. “Your throat has been cut. In your mortal body.”

“My mortal body?” Ah. That explained some things. “So I’m dead now?”

Laima smiled. The corners of her eyes crinkled up to match her lips. “No, Dekla. Not now. Don’t you know who you are?”

I frowned, feeling completely confused. A moment ago I was being murdered, and now I was having a conversation with a goddess... in heaven? “Well, apparently there’s some uncertainty on the issue. I tend to think of myself as Jayne. But I guess I’m also Dekla?”

“Yes.” Laima took my hand. The warm softness of her skin radiated up my arm, calming my nerves. “You are my sister. There is another, Karta. Together we decide the fate of mortals.”

At that moment I felt it. I felt a connection to Karta and Laima as ancient as the pyramids. A feeling of belonging and power stirred in my chest. “Where is Karta? Is she immortal?”

“No.” Laima shook her head. “Like Dekla, Karta decided to give up her immortality in exchange for immortal powers. They are distributed among women of her choosing, who also help me in deciding the fates of mortals. Just like you.”

Just like me. “But I don’t know how to help anyone.”

“All you have to do is ask, Dekla.”

That’s what Adelle had said, too, but it still made no sense to me. “I don’t understand.”

She leaned closer, so close I could only see her eyes. “From time to time you’ll meet a person whose fate hasn’t been decided. Each time you do, you’ll see a possible fate, and you get to have your say.”

“Really?” A dozen visions of various deaths flashed behind my eyes. Guilt sickened my stomach at the thought that I could’ve saved them and didn’t. “But how?”

Laima took a step back. “You ask me to change it.”

“That’s it? That’s all I have to do?”

She nodded. “But that doesn’t mean I will change it. I will consider your request. And you only have the power to change the deaths of youth. If it’s an adult, you must appeal to Karta.”

My mind reeled with the concept. “So I have to find Karta? And how will I know if you change it?”

A smile again, as bright as the first rays of sunlight. “I will tell you if I approve the change.”

She hadn’t answered my question about Karta. But before I could ask again, her smile faded, and she continued.

“But you must be wise, Dekla. All people die eventually. You must consider their entire situation before you make a request. There is a cost that comes with each change.”

A knot formed in my chest. Of course. “What is the cost?”

“Ten years of someone else’s life.”

I jolted. “Ten years? That’s kind of a lot!”

Yes,” Laima agreed. “So judge wisely.”

“But whose life? Whose life will I be affecting?”

“You won’t know.”

“All of the deaths I See are horrible,” I whispered. “I want to change all of them.”

“But you cannot.” She studied me. “As your powers grow stronger, Dekla, you will be given more responsibility. You will have more visions. You can change their deaths, but remember the price.”

Aaron. My sister. Harold. Mr. Harris. How could I choose between these people?

Wait. Mr. Harris was an adult. I couldn’t change his. “How can I find Karta?” I asked again, suddenly feeling that this was very important. I couldn’t do my job properly if I didn’t know where she was.

Laima let go of my hand. “You will find each other. It’s time to go back, Dekla.”