Rewind (Vanish Book Three)

Rewind (Vanish Book
Three)

By Sonny Daise

Copyright 2012 Sonny
Daise

Smashwords
Edition

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Chapter 1: Time Will
Tell

I knew I was sleeping, but I wasn’t
sure where I was. Was I in the present, knocked out from the fall,
or dead? Or was I in the past, about to wake up and pretend this
was all a horrible dream?

I laid there with my eyes
closed, afraid of where I would be when I opened them. Would I wake
up in the hospital, having to relive every awful moment? I opened
my eyes. I was in my old room with all my old things. I sighed with
relief, until I remembered—I would have to pretend that I didn’t
know anything about Ann. When I got up to look around, I noticed
there was another bed. This couldn’t be good. We must have changed
something, hopefully this was the only thing, but who was in the
bed? I went over to look. It was Rose. I shook her until she woke
up.

“
It worked, but I don’t
understand why you’re here,” I said so fast, I don’t think she
caught what I said. Her eyes were half open, and she looked
exhausted.

“
I knew it was only a matter
of time before you went crazy,” she joked and pulled the covers
over her head. “Now let me sleep. Today’s going to be a long
day.”

“
No, Rose, how far back did
you take us?”

“
What are you talking
about?” She mumbled.

She didn’t remember. I ran out the
bedroom door and down the stairs.

“
Good morning, sweetie,” Ann said
in the sweetest voice I’d ever heard her speak in. She was making
breakfast, something she would never have bothered to do before.
“Rose still isn’t up?”

“
Uh, no,” I
answered.

“
Could you go wake her up,
honey? We need to be ready to go soon.”

“
Alright,” I
mumbled.

I was angry at her. I hated
her, but it seemed she wasn’t the same person who attacked Grace
and me in the woods that night. I was horrified to see what else
had changed; the ramifications of our actions had to extend out of
this house.

I needed to find Dante, to
explain everything. I needed him to hold me in his arms again and
believe what I was about to tell him. I hoped I wouldn’t be
rejected. I ran up the stairs to wake Rose. I needed to be quick,
so I could find Dante and Grace before whatever we had to do today.
I knew I would have to go along with everything until I could
figure out what we needed to do.

“
Wake up,” I yelled as I
threw a pillow at her.

“
Didn’t we just have this
discussion?”

“…
Mom said to wake you up,
she’s making breakfast.”

“
Ugh, fine.” She sat up. “I
had the weirdest dream. Me, you and Dante Quinn were all standing
on the edge of a cliff—”

“
It wasn’t a dream, Rose.
Come on, I know you remember. You have to,” I pleaded.

“
Ha, nice one. Kind of like
when I made you believe that dream you had was real, what was it
about again?”

“
You really don’t remember
anything?”

“
You’re nuts,” she said as
she rolled out of bed.

Great, now I was back to
feeling crazy over something I was sure of. I was sure I didn’t
kill Grace; I was crazy. Now I’m sure we went back in time, but no
one, not even the person I came here with believes me. I went down
and sat at the table with Ann and Rose.

Once I was finished eating
breakfast, I marched up the stairs to get ready. I still didn’t
know what I was getting ready for. I put on some jeans and a nice
green blouse. I figured that should work for most occasions. Ann
knew I wasn’t much for dressing up, so if this occasion called for
that, she should have said so.

“
What are you doing?” Rose
asked as she walked up to me in a black dress.

“
What?”

“
Umm I know this is hard for
you. You knew him better than I did, all the more reason to have
some respect.”

“
Where are we going?” I
wondered.

“
Are you kidding? We’re
going to a funeral,” Rose said in disbelief.

I couldn’t bear to ask my
next question. So much had changed, I knew I was going to come off
crazy sooner or later because it was obvious I should have known
this. Whose funeral were we going to? Did we mess up the past so
bad by coming back to it, that— no. I couldn’t even think it. I
grabbed a black dress out of the closet and stumbled into the
bathroom. When I came out, I couldn’t even speak, not until we got
to the funeral, not until I knew for sure.

“
Come on girls,” Ann called
from downstairs.

When we reached the funeral
home, I saw Dante’s mother and brothers on the stairs in the front
of the building. They were hugging and crying.

The funeral home was right
on the edge of a familiar patch of woods. I couldn’t do this. I
wanted to be there. I knew I would regret it, but once I had my
opening, I took it and ran straight for the woods.

Me and Dante’s favorite spot
was behind the bar a little ways down the street. I knew it
wouldn’t take too long to get there. I would rather remember him
sitting in that spot, than him lying in a casket. I ran through the
woods, not bothering to watch were I was going. I tripped over
roots and big branches, but soon I was close to my
destination.

The woods were just as
beautiful as I remembered, it must have been spring or summer. The
trees were covered in perfect green leaves. The warm air was
comforting, but nothing could make me feel better.

I walked the rest of the
way, taking everything in. The most depressing thought I had,
besides the actual realization that he was dead, was that he died
before I ever got to tell him how I felt. Before he could tell me
he felt the same, in this alternate reality though, that may not
have been the case.

I anticipated the beautiful
river, flowing over the smooth rocks, and sitting on the rock we
shared to watch it countless times before.

When I reached it, I stood there in
shock. Sitting there on the rock—our rock—was Dante, but was he
alive or was it only his ghost?

Everything was so different
now. We changed the past by coming back to it, but did that mean
the future had changed as well? I walked closer to the rock where
Dante sat, unaware of me coming up behind him. I needed a closer
look, though differentiating a ghost from a person wasn’t easy. The
best way I’d come up with thus far was wounds, or appearing out of
thin air.

I couldn’t bear it anymore; I needed to
touch him, hug him, be near him for only a second. I ran up and
wrapped my arms around him.

“
What the
hell are you doing? Get off me.” He pushed me off him and down to
the ground.
I’d taken him by
surprise, he was frightened that’s all
, I
told myself.

“
Dante, you need to listen
to me. I know none of this is going to make sense, but please hear
me out. I came back from the future; we were hiding out from the
Alliance. Long story short, they cornered us, well, not really us
because you were a ghost. My sister and I came back in time, and
now everything is different—”

“
I didn’t even know you knew
my name,” he scoffed.

“
What? Dante,” I cried. I
almost broke down and told him how much I loved him. How much I
needed him to hold me right now, but that was in the future.
“You’re my best friend.”

“
Have you gone insane? You
and your stuck-up friends wouldn’t even look in my
direction.”

“
What?” I stayed on the
ground unable to comprehend this. Ann was suddenly the perfect mom.
Okay, I guess I could accept that. But this? No.

“
Please just leave. I need
some time alone, without you bothering me.”

“
You need to listen. We were
looking for Grace, your other best friend. She went missing, and I
got locked away in a mental hospital—”

“
Yeah? Did you escape or
something? Because it sounds like you need to go back.”

“
No, it was in the future.”
I sounded insane. I could tell after each word I said, but I
couldn’t stop, it just kept spewing out. “We were in
love.”

“
Look, I don’t know what
you’re talking about, but I’m sure you can find someone else to
babble to.”

The air escaped from my
lungs and wouldn’t return. All I could hear inside my head, was him
telling me he loved me. All I could think about was the smile on
his face as he pulled me toward him. I needed to get back to the
future. I would rather die with Dante, than live with us like this.
I was prepared for him to think that we were only friends. I could
handle that. I didn’t know if I could handle it forever, after
having a slight, beautiful glimpse at what it was like to be with
him. This I could not handle.

I walked away, back toward
the funeral home, though I still didn’t know who the funeral was
for. I needed to convince Rose that she had done this. I needed her
to take us back, but I also knew that it wouldn’t work.

When I reached the funeral
home, the parking lot was full of people. It was over, and I was
gone for much longer than I thought. I walked over to Ann and
Rose.

“
I’m so sorry about your
husband, Marsha,” Ann said.

Dante’s dad was the one who
died. I couldn’t help but feel like it was my fault. Sure, he would
have died anyway, but it had to of been a year or more from now. I
felt awful for Dante. That was why he wanted to be left alone,
aside from just not wanting me around.

I heard girls giggling and soon one of
them was grabbing onto my arm and dragging me across the parking
lot.

“
Let go of me,” I
snarled.

“
Whoa, chill out Scarlett,”
she said in a snobby voice, I turned to look at her. Nicole
Thomas.

“
What do you want?” I
sneered.

“
I thought we were going to
the mall today?”

“
Huh?” I raised my eyebrow
and gave her a dirty look.

Nicole Thomas was the biggest bitch I
had ever met. She and her friends took pleasure in nothing more
than making people’s lives hell.

She looked over towards her
friends, waiting in her shiny, purple Beetle. She motioned for them
to come over.

“
What’s up?” Amber Anderson
asked as she walked over, with Rebecca Fields following close
behind.

“
Something’s wrong with
Scarlett,” Nicole answered. “She seems to have forgotten that we
had plans, and look at that dress.” They all looked disgusted, as
if I were wearing rags. This dress was a lot nicer than anything
I’d worn in a long time.

“
Come on let’s go,” Rebecca
demanded. Nicole grabbed my arm again, and started dragging me
toward the car.

“
I’m not going,” I
protested.

“
Yes you are.”

“
No, I’m not.” I pulled my
arm away.

“
You’re going to regret
this,” she warned.

“
I’m sorry. I have other
things to deal with,” I said as I walked away. I walked back over
to Rose and Ann as the Beetle sped away.

“
What was that about?” Rose
asked.

“
It was nothing,” I said as
I got in the car. Ann finished talking to Dante’s mom and got in
the car as well.

When we arrived home, I ran
up the stairs, Rose followed close behind me. I sat down on my bed,
and she sat on hers, just staring.

“
There’s something different
about you,” she blurted. I got up and shut the door.