Significance

by Shelly Crane

  I winced and he seemed to like that response. He took a step forward.

  “Isn’t he the one helping you do this echo dream?” I stepped back.

  “He doesn’t have to be awake to help me anymore. He’ll remember it in the morning but he doesn’t know I’m here til then.”

  “Why? I didn’t do anything to you,” I creaked.

  “Ahh, cutie,” he crooned and tried to touch my cheek but I jerked back. “You made me look bad in front of my clan. I couldn’t kidnap one little human girl. You know how incompetent that made me look to them? Plus, Caleb doesn’t deserve you. He doesn’t deserve to have this handed to him like he was more important than the rest of us when-”

  “Maggie!”

  I gasped and turned to see Caleb, the real Caleb, my significant, my imprint, my soul mate, running over the dune and down the beach towards me.

  Twenty Four

  “Caleb?” I whispered in awe.

  “You don’t belong here,” CalebMarcus roared behind me. “How did you get in here?”

  Caleb reached us quickly and swallowed me in an embrace of warm arms. I sighed but not in relief because I got none. His touch didn’t soothe and calm me of the withdrawals because it wasn’t real.

  But he was really here. In my dream, right now.

  “Caleb,” I cried. “How did you get here?”

  He pulled back to cup my face and kissed me forcefully. His mouth opened mine, his lips were filled with all the longing we’d felt in the past two days without each other. It didn’t last long and he whispered his next words against my lips.

  “He can’t keep you from me. No one can. I told you I’ll always find you.”

  “Answer me,” Marcus growled again. “How did you get in here without an echoling?”

  Caleb startled like he just noticed we weren’t alone and pulled me behind him.

  “Because you underestimated us, like always.”

  “Whatever. I’ll just go wake her up, right now, and I won’t do the echo dream anymore. You’ll never see her again so you better enjoy it while you can.”

  “At least she can sleep in peace and not have you crawling through her dreams anymore,” Caleb growled.

  “You better get to it,” Marcus said and disappeared.

  Caleb immediately turned and pulled me back to him, speaking into my hair.

  “Where are you, Maggie? Tell me what it looks like.”

  “Like a jail cell or a basement storage room maybe. It’s all metal walls and concrete floors. It stinks.”

  “What does it smell like?”

  “Musty mold. And it’s cold. How did you get in here?”

  “No idea. I just was thinking about you, trying to get a read or fix on you. I was lying on my bed, must’ve fallen asleep, then landed on the dune. Who have you seen?”

  “Marcus, his uncle and his sister, Marla.”

  “Did he hurt you? Did any one of them hurt you?”

  “Not yet,” I squeaked.

  He sighed and squeezed me.

  “I’ll find you. I will.”

  “Is my dad freaking out?”

  “Absolutely. My parents have actually been at your house a couple times with him already. They’ve been working together with the police. He called your mom, brother and your boss, too. My whole family has been going nuts.” He ran a hand through his hair harshly. “Maggie,” he sighed and put his head against mine. “I need you to be here. I miss you.”

  “I know. Me too,” I cried. “I’m so sorry.”

  “This is not your fault.”

  “Your’s either. I just want to come home. Caleb, I-”

  “I know, baby, I know,” he said gruffly.

  He kissed me again but it was so desperate, so painful because I knew he was about to be ripped from me and I’d be back in my hole with the pain of our separation gripping me violently. I wrapped my arms around his neck and he lifted my feet from the sand as he squeezed me to him. His mouth was gentle and slow like he knew there was no point in trying to rush. It didn’t matter. I just wanted to keep him there as long as possible.

  But it didn’t last long enough.

  Something happened.

  I felt a jolt go through me and my blood turned cold in my veins. Caleb’s skin felt too hot to touch but then mine matched it and I was burning and freezing but in a good way. His heart was beating through my chest along with my own, making me startle. I opened my eyes to look at Caleb and saw he was experiencing the same thing as me. His eyes were wide and then he laughed which seemed odd at the time but I knew this wasn’t something awful. It felt like...like imprinting. Wait- he had said we’d be together when it happened and it would feel like imprinting when we ascended. Could it be?

  “It’s ok, Maggie. It’s for real. It’s happening.”

  “How? This is a dream.”

  “I don’t know but I’m not complaining. This is going to help me save you somehow. I know it.” He pulled me close to him again and held me tight. “Just wait, don’t fight it. Once it’s all done, we’ll figure out a way to get you out of there.”

  As we held on, our bodies continued to pulse with warm and cold and seemed to breathe for themselves. It’s like our souls took a back seat and let our bodies transform and configure into something else. My limbs burned and tingled, my head tingled too and I closed my eyes against the pressure.

  When I finally felt like I’d settled back into myself, I felt different; more lithe and womanly than I had in my previous, awkward body. I felt more right and stronger, like I finally belonged and had purpose.

  It didn’t really make sense but I went with it.

  “Maggie.”

  I opened my eyes and looked at Caleb as he too looked a little different. His muscles under my hands on his upper arms were slightly more defined and harder. His facial features looked rugged and grown up; as if he had aged, but not in a bad way.

  “Caleb. You look...” I had no way to describe it to him.

  “I know. You’re gorgeous. I didn’t think it was possible for you to be more gorgeous than you were before but, man, was I wrong.” He looked as if in awe as he cupped my cheek and caressed it gently like I was something precious. “You are so beautiful.”

  He smiled and I felt it all the way to my toes. I reached up and traced my finger over his brow, down his nose, over his lips as he closed his eyes, his lips parted. Everything about him seemed to be different. He felt different. I pressed my ear to his chest, hearing and feeling our heartbeats under his skin, beating in sync. Reminding me that nothing could literally ever separate me from Caleb, or him from me. We were one.

  Oh my- He was mine and he was perfect. Not just his looks, his everything. I could see and feel his soul and goodness all around me like it was a tangible thing. He glowed with love for me. And he was mine.

  “Yes. And you’re mine,” he murmured into my hair, reading my thoughts. “Forever.”

  But then something yanked at me. Something that felt like a tether or leash I was connected to. I could feel myself being pulled towards consciousness and gasped as I pulled back from him a little.

  “Caleb. He’s taking me. He’s waking me up.”

  “No. Not yet,” he begged and ran his fingers through my hair, pressing his nose to mine.

  “Caleb, please stay with me,” I said my voice breaking as the tears rolled down my face. “I love you.”

  “Not goodbye, Maggie.” He wiped my tears away with a thumb and kissed my forehead. “I love you so much. I’ll find you. We’re ascended now. I promi-”

  I was awake, gasping and aching like never before by Marcus throwing a bucket of water on me and my bed and the sheets.

  “Finally. The pillow didn’t work. Fighting it weren’t you.” He chuckled and turned to leave. “Stupid human.”

  I laid there cold, shivering and writhing on the bed in utter devastation but utter revelation as well. I was not a human anymore. Even though that was abundantly clear and the pain was wretched and vo
latile, the loss of Caleb was incomparable.

  Once again I had no sense of days or time. The pain just took me over and I screamed and cried, yelling for Caleb and feeling my body jerk and jar with a slow steady heartbeat. During it all, no one came to see me. No one opened the slot to see if I was ok. No one gave me water or tried to calm me. They just let me scream myself back to sleep.

  I woke fuzzy, like I was drugged. But I had refused to eat their food or drink so I didn’t understand how they were still getting their drugs in me to keep my heart rate low. I wiped my face of drool but stopped. It smelled funny. I smelled my hand and tasted it, spitting it out once I realized it was the medicine. Someone had been coming in, knowing I’d pass out from exhaustion from withdrawals, and slipping me the medicine then. Their cleverness was beginning to make my hope fail. I tried to not scream from the pain this time. My throat was raw and scratchy from it and the lack of water. I guessed there was no point in holding out any longer because they were already giving me the medicine.

  I rolled out of bed, the sheet still damp around me but I crumpled to the floor with a whimper and dry heaved over and over. Oh. How? How could it still be getting worse? There was no way I’d survive. If I didn’t get out to Caleb, I’d die. No other way about it. And Caleb...He would die too. I had to get to him.

  I crawled and pulled myself to the door where today’s food tray was and found a big bottle of Gatorade and a turkey and cheese sandwich. I woofed it down and was amazed to still feel my stomach growl after it was all gone.

  “I’ll have Marla bring you another one shortly.”

  I turned to see Marcus’s uncle, Sikes I assumed, sitting in the same corner that he had before.

  I wondered if he would be able to tell I was different, that I had ascended and was no longer human, but I guessed not since I was so disheveled. I looked down at my see through white wet sheet and then glared at him.

  “I told you to put those clothes on, didn’t I,” he said clearly amused.

  “Great. I can add pervert to your list.”

  “I’d cooperate if I were you. You see the bad parts about to begin. My wife is coming in to take your blood. You put one scratch on her and I’ll kill you myself. Got it?”

  I sat and looked at him like he was a total idiot.

  He nodded like my silence had been an answer and banged once on the wall with his fist. The door opened and a short, pretty little woman came through. She refused to look at me but came right to me and helped me off the floor. She placed me on the bed and motioned for me to lie down.

  She then placed a hand on my forehead, like she was checking for a fever. That’s when I realized something was different. I wasn’t shocked or jolted by her touch. There was no offense mark.

  “Why aren’t you burning my skin like they do?”

  “Well, I’m not here to hurt you, dear. But also, I was human, like you. So I don’t produce those kinds of marks on others.”

  Human? But Caleb has said there were only three humans. Could it be that they didn’t know about her?

  She pulled out a needle and a couple tubes with labels and I felt sick. I turned, groaning and pressed the side of my face into the pillow.

  “She needs more liquids,” the woman called out to her husband. “I won’t get much blood from these dry veins.”

  He banged on the wall again and a young guy I’d seen somewhere before opened the door.

  “Bring me two bottles of orange juice, unopened.”

  He nodded and left quickly. She continued to poke the inside of my elbow with her fingers until he came back with the bottles.

  “Drink one now, one after,” Sikes said as he tossed them to me. The guy who brought them stared at me with a little smile. His eyes roamed over me and I realized with chagrin I was still wearing the damp sheet. I pulled my legs up and placed my arms on top of my knees. He chuckled at my reaction but Sikes barked at him. “Get out.”

  Then I recognized him, the guy who tried to help Marcus kidnap me. He had put a majority of the offense marks on me that night. I glared at his back as he left.

  “Drink up, dear. I need to get this blood so we can let you rest.”

  I wanted to laugh at her attempt at humanity. It was a little late for that now. I drank the orange juice eagerly as I needed it. While she waited for the juice to hit my system I decided to small talk.

  “What’s your ability?”

  I fully expected her to not answer, but she did.

  “I can see through things. Skin, for instance. It’s why I’m so good at taking blood and things like this.”

  That gave me pause and I was surprised I could follow and focus so well after everything that had happened to me. My body felt disoriented but my mind was sharp. I wondered if the ascension had anything to do with that.

  “Wait. I thought the abilities were supposed to compliment each other? But if he,” I pointed to the jerk still sitting, leaning on the wall, “can go into dreams, that doesn’t go together with seeing through things.”

  “That’s only a Jacobson rule,” Sikes muttered. “The rest of us just have to make do.”

  “Oh.”

  “It’s time,” she chimed and began to get my arm ready again. I felt bile rise in anticipation of the stick. I hated needles. “Just relax. I’m very good at this. It won’t hurt. Lean back and close your eyes.”

  I did what she said though I didn’t trust her, I had no other choice.

  “I can’t believe I have to do this to do this to this poor girl.” She took a deep breath. “It’s for the good of the clan the good of the clan.”

  “What?” I asked, wondering what she meant by what she said.

  “I didn’t say anything, dear. Lie back.”

  I looked at her curiously because I knew I heard her say something. Then her lips didn’t move but...I heard her.

  “This better work. I’m not spending the rest of my life experimenting on teenagers, Sikes.”

  I coughed a shocked laugh.

  “What?” she asked out loud and began to look worried. She looked at her tubes in her hand. Then in her head she said, “Did I take too much? She’s acting funny.”

  I watched her and listened to her inner monologue, sometimes to Sikes and sometimes with herself, until she was done.

  “All done,” she chimed happily and took the rubber band from my arm. “There. You didn’t even know I was doing it, did you?”

  “No,” I breathed because it was all I could do.

  Holy crap, I can read minds. That’s my ability? Somehow the way everyone had made such a fuss over me, I thought it’d be cooler than that. How the heck was that going to get me out of here?

  “Ok, Maggie. Drink your juice and put those clothes on. The next time I visit, we’re taking a little field trip,” Sikes said and left behind his wife.

  I tried to process and think. Tried to reach out to Caleb but got nothing. I washed up in a bowl of water left beside my bed. The water was cold and it didn’t feel good but I did it anyway. I hurriedly put on the clothes left for me, a pair of old jeans and a black baby doll t-shirt that said ‘Bite Me’ with two red blood dripping vampire holes in the collar. Ugh and Eew.

  I tried to pull my hair back in a twisted bun but my arms ached so bad, I couldn’t make it work. I hurt all over, like I’d been hit over and over, my muscles refusing to cooperate. I needed Caleb.

  By then Sikes had returned to find me sitting on the bed’s edge.

  “Ah. You look like a new girl.”

  “I’m sure I do,” I muttered sarcastically.

  “Come on. We have work to do.”

  He didn’t touch me but beckoned for me follow him. When I came out of my cell, I saw that there were other cells too but no one was in them as we passed. We did pass a few people out of cells though and they gawked openly as we passed them every so often. Some looked like they wanted to spit on me, others wanted to put me in their bag and run with me like I was the Holy Grail. I didn’t like either of those o
ptions.

  “Where are we going?”

  “Somewhere.”

  “Hilarious,” I muttered and tried to stretch out the ache in my back.

  “Keep your questions to yourself for now.”

  I rolled my eyes at him but he didn’t see. I kept shuffling along through the pain. I considered the karate I’d learned from Kyle’s dad but I was so weak from withdrawals, I was barely dragging myself down the hall. And the meds they were giving me probably had something in them to keep me from something like that. I’m sure Marcus told them what happened the first time he tried to kidnap me.

  Speak of the devil. I heard someone behind me and turned to see Marcus smiling cruelly behind me. Then Sikes started spouting something ahead of me.

  “Maybe we should try to test the blood first. Maybe we could pair her with one of ours and see if we can break the imprint or trick it.”

  “What?” I asked him, confused and terrified.

  “I didn’t say anything. Be quiet.”

  I realized I’d heard his thoughts. I decided to test it since we were apparently headed down the longest hall in history. I tried to open my mind, my ears, my senses and listen to a group of three people as I passed them in the hall.

  Plan backfire.

  I heard all kinds of voices at once and it was too much as my head stung and buzzed. I collapsed with a scream to the floor, cupping the sides of my head as I felt like I’d black out. A couple of them tried to run to help me but Sikes held up a hand to stop them.

  “Wait. Don’t touch her! No offense marks!” Then I heard his thought.

  Other than the one Marcus already put on her hand.

  “What’s wrong, Maggie?”

  “I, uh...” It was ok it if didn’t push it so I eased my self off the floor on shaky, achy legs. “I’m ok, just a sharp pain in my head, headache, I guess.”

  “Well, come on. Fresh air will do you good.”

  “Outside?”

  “No tricks, Miss Masters. You are still pumped with meds. Your Caleb will not save you.”

  “Not like he could even if your heartbeat was blaring like a foghorn,” Marcus remarked snidely.