Rewind (Vanish Book Three) (4 page)

When I woke up in the
morning, the clock said it was ten thirty. Rose was gone, and I was
late for school. Why didn’t anyone wake me up? I ran to the closet
and threw on the first thing I found. The school was only a mile
away, and walking was my only option. I grabbed my back pack and
headed out the door.

As I walked past Dante’s
house, I saw him heading out the door. He was either skipping or
late, too. I picked up my pace and ignored the urge to run up to
him.

A few minutes later, he
drove past me and stopped about ten feet ahead. I ignored it; he
was probably just messing with me. When I walked past the car, he
yelled out the window.

“
Hey do you need a ride?” he
asked.

I looked over at him, and my heart
melted. Was he starting to warm up to me? I could only
hope.

“
Okay, thanks,” I said as I
walked over to the passenger door.

We were quiet for a few moments, but he
finally spoke.

“
So, you really stood up to
those girls?” he asked.

“
Yeah, I guess, if that’s
what you want to call it,” I replied.

“
Well good. I mean, I always
saw you as one of them, but different.”

“
What do you mean?” I
wondered.

“
I mean, you tried to fit
in, but I don’t believe that’s ever who you really
were.”

“
So, does this mean
you—“

“
Look, I’m not trying to be
best friends with you or anything; I’m just trying to be nice.”
Then I lost it.

“
Dante we were best friends.
You have to believe me. Everything has changed. I was never friends
with those girls; I was friends with you and Grace.”

“
I don’t know who Grace is,
or what you’re talking about.”

“
Can we hang out?” I
asked.

“
I don’t think that’s a good
idea, just because I don’t have a problem with you, doesn’t mean my
friends don’t.”

When I looked out the window, we were
at school. Right when he stopped the car, I jumped out.

“
Thanks,” I mumbled as I
walked away.

It was lunch time. I didn’t
see Annabelle, so I sat alone. It was better that way anyway. I
wouldn’t look that crazy as my mind was wrapped up in thoughts of
Dante. I looked across the lunch room. Dante was sitting with his
friends, but every couple minutes, he looked over.

Fifth hour was a blur; I
couldn’t get him off my mind. I thought back to all of the memories
I had of the future, us at the lake, having a good time. The last
night we spent together. A few tears escaped. I wiped them away
just in time to head to sixth hour. Then I remembered
the presentation
. I was
so nervous. Nicole and all of her friends sat only feet away.
Nothing could make matters worse, I was almost certain of
that.

“
Scarlett Summers,” the
substitute teacher called. “Would you like to go first?” She looked
around the room, waiting for someone to answer.

“
Okay,” I said as I walked
to the front of the class.

Before I could even begin
speaking, Nicole was making comments about my clothes, my hair.
Besides Nicole, they all had perfect blonde hair. Now, she was the
odd one out, with her still-perfect brown locks. Every time I would
go to speak, one of them would laugh or cough, and soon the rest of
the class was joining in. I could feel my cheeks turning red. The
one person I saw that wasn’t joining in, was Annabelle. I didn’t
even notice that she was in this class before. I wondered where she
was at lunch.

“
Oh wait,” the teacher
interrupted, ignoring the girls. “I forgot to take attendance,
sorry Scarlett, it will only take a minute.” I tuned everything out
as I stood in front of the class, waiting for this to be over. She
called out name by name, and each person responded. “Dante Quinn?”
She called out. “Dante Quinn?”

He was in this class? I
understood why he wasn’t here; it was his dad’s class.

Finally, the teacher was
finished, and I took a deep breath. When I went to speak, Nicole
threw an open carton of milk at me. Without warning, I went
invisible. I ducked down below the podium I was standing at, and
prayed it would be so easy to turn visible—it wasn’t. Confused
chatter filled the room, but the teacher was too busy scolding
Nicole to notice. I took my chance and ran out of the room. Once I
was out of the school, I finally went visible.

“
What the hell?” I looked
over and saw Dante staring.

“
I—I” I
couldn’t speak, I couldn’t explain this, and if he didn’t have
powers, he could be in danger—and so could the rest of the class. I
ran a little ways down the side walk in front of the school. I
couldn’t believe what had just happened or what
could.

A few minutes later, Dante
walked up. I couldn’t let him question me, it was obvious that he
was shocked and therefore, did not have powers. I got up and ran
straight ahead, in front of cars that slammed on their breaks and
honked. It was stupid, but I had to get away. I ran through the
little patch of woods along the school, and out onto the main road.
It felt like my lungs would explode, but I had to keep running. I
looked back, and Dante was driving up. He stopped next to
me.

“
Come on, get in the car,”
he begged.

“
No, I’m fine,” I said as I
picked up my pace.

He drove a little farther
and turned down a street up ahead. He stopped right in front of the
sidewalk. I knew he wasn’t going to give up, now he
was
interested in me, but
only because of what he saw. I ran through a patch of bushes, and
through random backyards, until I made it to the stretch of woods
by the bar. The one with me and Dante’s spot. I needed to think, a
whole class full of people had just seen my power and if the
Alliance knew—no, I couldn’t think it.

I ran to the rock. I didn’t
know what to do. Whatever was happening in the future was my fault.
Whatever would happen here would be my fault. I couldn’t even dream
of fighting the Alliance alone, and I had no one to help me. Then
it hit me—Elizabeth and George. They must be in those woods, just a
past version of themselves. Tomorrow I wouldn’t go to school—as if
I would have after what happened anyway. I would have to figure out
a way to get Rose’s car for the day, but I didn’t know how long I
would be gone.

“
Hey,”
Dante said as he came up behind me.
Great
.

“
Hi…” I mumbled. “How did
you know I would be here?”

“
How did you know I would be
here the last time?”

“
I didn’t,” I
replied.

“
Well, then, why did you
come in the first place?” he wondered.

“
What, you think you’re the
only one that knew about this place? I used to come here all the
time with my best friend.”

“
Nicole?” he
asked.

“
No, you.”

“
I’ve never come here before
with anyone,” he said, confused, he shook his head. “What was going
on back at the school?”

“
If it’s that much of a
shock to you, then I can’t really say,” I sighed. “If it isn’t bad
enough you saw, so did my whole sixth hour class.”

“
Exactly what did I see?” he
said as he came closer.

I didn’t understand why he
didn’t have powers; I couldn’t be the only person in the world with
powers, could I? If I was, that meant no Alliance, but I couldn’t
just assume. I grabbed his hand—an old habit he probably didn’t
appreciate—and as I did, the ghost of Dante appeared.

“
Whoa,” Dante jumped back,
letting go of my hand. “What was that?” he asked.

“
That was you…” I said under
my breath as I stared at the Dante who I’d known and loved for
years.

“
Tell him… me… whatever,”
his ghost urged.

“
About six months into the
future… you died,” I blurted.

“
What? No, I don’t know
what’s going on with you, but you’re crazy, and I’m seeing
things.”

I grabbed his hand.

“
Why don’t you tell him,” I
said to Dante’s ghost.

“
It’s true; everything that
she said was true. She was cornered by a group of people that
wanted to hurt us, so she went back in time. It was the only way
that she could fix things.”

“
This is messed up, there’s
no way… this is crazy. I don’t know how you’re doing this, but
you’re crazy,” he babbled.

“
I knew this was a bad
idea,” I said, shaking my head as I walked in circles.

“
I need to leave; this is
too weird,” Dante said. He went to run, but I grabbed his
hand.

“
Please don’t. You wanted to
know and now you do.”

“
No, I need to leave, let me
go!” he yelled, and as he did he started to glow. Blue and green
swirls circled him; it wasn’t like it was before. They grew
brighter and brighter, until we were sitting in his basement. He
stared at me, and I stared back; he was in shock, and I was
relieved.

“
You need to go,” he
ordered.

“
I didn’t do that… you
did.”

Chapter 4:
Picture

We sat there in silence. He
couldn’t believe that he did that, but somewhere deep inside, he
knew it was true. He was starting to realize that I was telling the
truth, but even if he did realize, would he help? I wasn’t sure
what it was that I had to do, but I knew I couldn’t do it alone.
Another thing that I wondered, would Dante always be like
this
? I needed the Dante
that I knew and loved; if the situation were reversed, I was almost
certain he wouldn’t be able to stand the person that I was in this
alternate universe. I looked back over at him. He still stared
ahead, lost deep inside his thoughts. I shook him.

“
What—” he said,
startled.

“
I need your help,” I
started to explain.

“
Can we go for a walk? I
think I need some fresh air,” he broke in before I could finish.
His face looked tired; it was as if he’d aged five years in the
time that we sat on this couch.

“
Sure,” I smiled.

“
There’s one problem,” he
looked at me in a way I would have only expected from my Dante. “My
mom never saw us come in, and if they’re not up there my brothers
will be.”

“
What time is it?” I asked.
It seemed like we had been down here for quite a long time, but
lately I wasn’t very good at measuring time.

“
Almost nine,” he
replied.

I really should have gone home, I knew
that Rose would worry, and Ann would probably be mad.

“
Where do you want to be?” I
asked. “Just think about the place you wish you were and before you
know it, we’ll be there.” I grabbed his hand.

“
I have a better idea,” he
muttered as he walked over to the tiny window near the
ceiling.

“
You’re joking,” I
laughed.

“
Come here,” he said under
his breath.

I needed to show him that
his powers were nothing to fear. I needed to teach him, just as
he’d done for me not too long ago. But for a moment, I thought
about running away from them, too, and everything that came with
them.

He laced his hands together and looked
up at the window. Instead of going out the window, I grabbed his
shoulders.

“
I know it’s not easy. I’ve
thought about ignoring it too—”

“
Come on, let’s
go.”

He gave me a boost, and just
as I went to crawl out the window, a giant spider crawled in. I
fell back and he caught me by the waist, we both fell to the floor.
He fell on top of me, and I couldn’t say anything, I had the wind
knocked out of me. He stared into my eyes and then looked over at
something. He tried to get up, but before he could, someone started
coming down the stairs.

I didn’t know why he decided
to use his power—because someone was coming, or did it have
something to do with whatever he was looking at? He started to glow
before I heard footsteps.

Once we reached our destination, I
stood there without a word. We were standing right behind Allison
Floyd; I didn’t know her, but I’d seen her around.

He held my hand as he stared
at her longingly. She had her back turned to us and didn’t seem to
notice our arrival. I became invisible; I couldn’t help it. This
was heart breaking. He was in love with someone else. Dante would
never be who he was before, and I couldn’t save the Dante that I
knew.

When I looked over to him,
he was nothing but an outline. I gasped. He had seen ghosts when I
held his hand before, but I never had anyone become invisible with
me. After a few moments, he looked like a ghost, I could see him,
but I could also see right through him.

His eyes were fixed on her.
They never left her face as she stared into her light-brown eyes in
the mirror. He looked into the mirror, and saw that he couldn’t see
himself. I was afraid that he would freak out, but as he stared at
her, he seemed calm, like nothing else mattered. He ran his fingers
over her wavy blonde hair, being careful not to touch her. I
thought about leaving, but I couldn’t.