by Melinda Metz
The driver climbed on the bus and started collecting the tickets.
The conversation with Michael began replaying in her head. She didn’t want it to, but she couldn’t stop it. She listened to herself explaining why she’d given Valenti Max’s and Isabel’s names. Why hadn’t she apologized?
Too late now, she thought. She pulled her ticket out of her pocket. Besides, an apology wouldn’t make him stop hating her.
The driver reached for Cameron’s ticket. She didn’t let it go. “I forgot something,” she blurted out. She bolted out of her seat, stumbled down the narrow aisle, flew down the steps, and hit the parking lot running.
It was a couple of miles to the museum, and there was probably a bus that went there, but Cameron didn’t want to waste time trying to find it. She wanted to get to Michael, spit out her apology, then exchange her ticket and finally get out of this town.
A few blocks later she reached the main street. She hung a left and kept running. It was a straight shot to the museum now. She pushed herself hard, almost glad when her lungs started to burn. It distracted her a little from what she was about to do.
When she reached the museum, she darted around to the side door and pushed through without breaking her stride. She raced to the staircase and went straight up.
She found Michael lying on the living-room floor. Her heart constricted at the sight of him.
He’s asleep, she thought. But there was something about the slackness of his mouth and the absolute stillness of his body that told her she was wrong.
Cameron stared at him for a long moment, unable to move. She realized that Michael’s eyes weren’t completely closed. She could see a sliver of white beneath the lids. She moved her gaze down to his chest. Was he even breathing? She couldn’t tell.
She slowly approached him and poked his shoulder with her toe. “Michael! Wake up!” she shouted, her voice coming out weirdly high and breathy.
He didn’t even twitch.
“Michael!” she shrieked. She jammed her toe into his shoulder. His body slid a few inches but remained still.
She knelt down, drew in a shaky breath, and lightly pressed her fingertips against the base of his neck.
She didn’t feel a pulse.
Maybe it was just too weak to feel. She lowered her head and pressed her ear against his chest.
She didn’t hear a heartbeat.
She squeezed her eyes shut and listened harder. She heard a pounding sound, and for one exhilarating second she was sure he was alive. Then she realized the sound was coming from the stairs. She shoved herself to her feet just as Max appeared, with Liz right behind him.
“I think Michael’s dead,” Cameron cried.
Max shoved his way past her and took Michael’s head in his hands. He closed his eyes and started taking deep, even breaths.
Cameron turned to Liz. “Can they bring back the dead?” she asked urgently. “Is that one of their powers?”
Liz shook her head, her eyes on Max and Michael. Cameron locked her teeth together. She was afraid if she tried to ask another question, even say another word, she might start screaming and never stop. Her jaw muscles began to ache as she stood there, waiting, watching.
Michael’s left foot gave a jerk, then his eyelids snapped open. He stared up into Max’s face. “Prince Charming, I’ve been waiting for you for so long,” he muttered.
A hoarse laugh burst from Cameron’s mouth, and the tension in her muscles eased up.
Max didn’t answer Michael. He jumped up, strode down the hall to the bedroom, and flung open the door. “Adam’s gone,” he announced as he hurried back over to Michael.
“Where’s Isabel?” Michael demanded, shoving himself to his feet.
“She stayed home sick,” Max reminded him.
“No. She was here. We were kissing. That’s the last thing I remember,” Michael shot back.
Max and Liz ran toward the kitchen. Michael rushed to the bathroom. Cameron stayed where she was. Kissing, she thought. Michael and Isabel were kissing.
“Adam must have knocked you out and taken Izzy with him,” Max said when he, Liz, and Michael had returned to the living room.
“Why are you so sure it was Adam?” Cameron asked.
“Michael’s brain stem had been pulverized from the inside,” Max explained. “Only another one of us could have done that.”
“With the sleeping pills I gave him, I can’t believe he even managed to roll over.” Michael pulled a medicine bottle out of his pocket and checked the dosage instructions.
“Maybe he didn’t do it,” Cameron said. “Maybe Isabel did. Do you think she could have carried Adam out of here on her own?”
Michael whipped his head toward her, and Cameron felt scalded by his gaze. “Isabel would not do this,” he said, his voice low and deadly “Everyone is not like you.”
It was as if the floor had been yanked out from under her feet. “How can you even compare—,” she began. Then she stopped herself. She couldn’t have this conversation. Not right now, at least. Not in front of Max and Liz.
“Cameron may be right,” Max said.
“I don’t believe you,” Michael exploded. “How can you say that about your own sister?”
“No, listen.” Max shot a glance at Liz, and she gave him a quick nod. “Yesterday Isabel used her powers to slam me up against a wall. She apologized, said she was freaked about what happened with Adam, but … ”
Michael shoved his fingers through his hair. “Isabel said there was something evil in Adam, something controlling him,” he muttered to himself.
“What if she was right?” Liz asked. “Could whatever it is be in Isabel now?”
Cameron was very glad Liz had asked thatquestion. It was something Michael needed to think about, but if Cameron had been the one to say it, he would have totally gone off.
“We have to at least consider it as a possibility,” Max answered. “Fact—Isabel’s not here. Fact—she never would have left Michael to die of her own free will. So either Adam regained consciousness, attacked Michael, and forced Isabel to go with him—”
“Or something evil has control of Isabel,” Michael finished.
“Okay, we checked the mall. We checked cheerleading practice. Now where—UFOnics?” Alex asked.
“It’s sort of early for that,” Maria said. “Besides, it’s in the part of town Michael and Cameron are searching.”
Michael and Cameron. Would she ever get used to saying that? Would she have to? Max had told Liz that Cameron was gone. But no.
“How about Flying Pepperoni?” Alex pulled off his sunglasses and tossed them on the dashboard.
“I guess,” Maria answered. “It seems kind of hopeless, though. Unless the evil thing in Isabel has some kind of pizza craving.”
Neither of them said a word for a long moment. Maria could feel the silence building up inside her, pushing at the walls of her body.
“Are we having fun yet?” Alex blurted out, a wide, maniacal grin breaking across his face.
“Oh yeah,” Maria answered. “We’re having more fun than—more fun than—”
“Than the last pancake at a breakfast buffet?” Alex suggested.
Maria squinched up her nose. “I have no idea what that means.”
“Yeah, me neither,” Alex admitted.
Silence filled the car again. Maria felt like a balloon that was about to pop.
“Did I used to have a life?” she suddenly exclaimed. “I mean, what did I do when I wasn’t doing this?” She made a helpless swirling gesture with her hands.
Alex laughed. “You mean before the alien invasion? You were enjoying your glory days, gathering up the memories you would come to treasure in your old age.”
He sounded so … bitter. Maria twisted the silver ring on her pinkie around and around. “Can I ask you a horrible question?”
“Uh, sure,” he answered.
“Do you wish that we didn’t know the truth about Michael and Max and Isabel?” It
was something she’d been asking herself a lot lately.
Alex hesitated. “It would be easier … ,” he finally said.
That was true. A lot easier. Not just because alien bounty hunters and evil controlling things would no longer be a part of her world, but because there would be no one she loved so hard, it hurt. There would be no Michael.
“But no,” Alex concluded. He shot a glance at Maria. “What about you? Do you wish you could go back in time to before it happened?”
Back to a time when her heart had never been broken. Back to a time when she had never kissed Michael, never told him she loved him.
Maria let out a long, sighing breath. “No. I don’t want to go back.”
“Look, you said you had something to say to me. We’ve been driving around for more than an hour and nothing,” Michael burst out. “I’m giving you three more minutes. That’s it.”
He couldn’t stand having her in the car another second, her with her ocean smell. Even all those pine tree air fresheners Ray had looped around the rearview mirror couldn’t completely block it out.
“Why three more minutes? How did you come to that random decision?” Cameron protested.
Now she was getting attitude.
“Three minutes because that’s how long it takes to get to the bus stop from here,” Michael answered. “You want to spend your three minutes on stupid questions, go ahead. Talk about the weather for all I care. But that’s all you’re getting.” He didn’t know why he was giving her that much.
“I don’t know how to say what I want to say,” she admitted.
“Three minutes,” he warned her. “Less than that now.”
She rubbed one finger over her lips, then started talking. “About what happened with Valenti … I’m sorry. I—”
“Don’t bother,” Michael interrupted. He tightened his grip on the wheel until his knuckles went white. “I don’t need to hear any more lies.”
“I’m not—”
Michael interrupted her again. “You said you didn’t know me. That was your excuse, right? You didn’t know me?”
“Yeah. I swear, if I’d known you, I never—”
“See, a lie. You didn’t know me when you made your little deal with Valenti, I’ll give you that. But you knew me when you got Max’s and Isabel’s names out of me. You sure knew me when you gave their names to Valenti.”
He shot a glance at her. She looked stunned. “You actually believed your own lie, didn’t you? You actually managed to convince yourself that you never could have done what you did if you’d known the people you were hurting. Well, that’s bull. You knew, and you didn’t care.”
That hurt. He could see it in her face. Good. If he had to face the truth about her, she would have to face it about herself. Why should he be the only one with his guts torn out?
She turned away from him and stared out the window. “By the time I got to know you, I was already in the compound. I was trapped.”
“What, and I was there for some kind of all-expenses-paid vacation?” he shot back. “We got Adam out. We would have found a way to get out ourselves sooner or later. But you had to take the easy way.”
“Easy, yeah,” she muttered sarcastically “Everything’s easy for me.”
“Oh, right, I forgot. You have some bad situation at home. And that makes everything you do okay.” Michael sped up and made a left turn with a squeal of tires. He shoved the gas pedal down harder, made another screeching turn. He wanted her out of this car now.
“Here’s the bus station. Have a nice life.” Michael jerked the car to a stop, reached over, and pushed open Cameron’s door.
“I’m sorry,” she mumbled one more time. Then she jumped out and raced across the parking lot.
Michael watched her for about two seconds, then he slammed out of the car. “Cameron, wait,” he shouted. She didn’t turn around, but she stopped. He rushed up to her, grabbed her by the shoulders, and forced her to face him. She wanted him to apologize. It was written all over her face. But Michael couldn’t let it affect him.
“I’m sure somewhere along the road, you’re going to need money,” he said. “And you’ll probably start thinking that if you just told the right people where they could find some real, live aliens, you’d be all set. But I promise you this, you ever say a word about us to anyone, and I will hunt you down and kill you.”
Cameron’s skin paled as her face went slack. For once she didn’t toss out a canned comeback, and Michael knew his message had hit home. He turned on his heel and walked away without so much as a backward glance.
“The cave is a great hiding place,” Max said. “If Isabel managed to escape from Adam—or break free from something controlling her—that’s where she’d go. She feels safe there.”
“That makes sense,” Liz agreed. She climbed out of the Jeep and helped Max cover it with the tan tarp he used as camouflage when he parked in the desert.
“Ready?” Max asked.
Liz nodded, and they started their hike to the crack in the desert floor leading to the cave. The sun was beginning to set, painting the mountains and pillars of clouds gold and pink. Looking at those clouds, Liz found it hard to believe that evil existed anywhere.
But that was a sentimental thought. Foolish. No, more than that—dangerous. Refusing to believe that evil existed made it almost impossible to fight.
Max reached out and took her hand. His touch comforted her, reminding her that at least she wouldn’t have to fight alone. His grip tightened when they neared the cave’s entrance, and she realized that he was drawing strength from her, too.
“Let’s just hope she’s there,” he said, then he released her hand and swung himself down into the cave. Liz scrambled after him, finding the big rock with her toes and jumping from there.
When she landed, it took Liz a moment to process what she saw. Isabel and Adam lay on the cave floor—and they both looked green. Someone stood over them, cackling. When the man turned around and faced them, Liz’s mind reeled.
It was Elsevan DuPris—and he had the Stone of Midnight in his hand.
DuPris smiled at Max. “I’ve been looking for this for more than fifty years,” he said, without a trace of his southern accent. “Who knew that your sister held the information I needed locked inside her little pinhead? Her memories led me right to the spot where you had hidden the Stone.”
“Who are you?” Liz whispered. She felt as if her world had been turned inside out. She had spoken to this man so many times during her life and had always dismissed him as a harmless wacko.
“My guess is … he’s not human,” Max said.
“Very good,” DuPris answered.
“And if he’s not human, then he must be the … stowaway Ray told us about,” Max answered, his voice shaking with anger. “The one who stole the Stone of Midnight and hid on board my parents’ ship.”
Liz let her eyes slide over him. Even the way he held himself was different now. He’d been walking around Roswell for years, letting everyone think he was a UFO-obsessed nut job. That took incredible patience, she realized. He must have wanted the Stone very badly.
Max took a step toward him. “The Stone doesn’t belong to you.”
Liz wanted to reach out and yank Max back to her side. Why was he challenging DuPris? Didn’t Max know that all they could do right now was try to get themselves and Isabel and Adam out of the cave alive?
“Finders keepers, isn’t that what they say here?” DuPris tossed the ring into the air and caught it, then slid it onto his finger. “I have plans for this. I could use some help, if you’re interested. If you’re not interested, well, help doesn’t always have to be voluntary, if you know what I mean.” He pointed his palm at Isabel and Adam. On cue, they opened their eyes and rose to their feet.
Liz forced herself to stare into Isabel’s blank eyes, then Adam’s. Izzy’s eyes looked like they had yesterday when she had shoved Max against the wall. A rush of understanding swept through Liz. Had DuPris
been controlling people from afar? Was he controlling Isabel when she shoved Max? Was he behind Adam killing Valenti—and that rabbit? Was there a way for Liz to help them break free of DuPris’s control?
“What do you say, Max?” DuPris asked. “I can’t offer you a partnership, but there is room for advancement in my enterprise.”
Say yes, Liz thought. Say what you have to say to get us out of here. This wasn’t the time to fight. They needed time to find the others and make a plan.
“You crashed that ship!” Max cried. “You killed my parents!”
“Don’t take it personally,” DuPris answered, strolling toward them. “They were going to take me back to our planet for judgment. I had no choice.”
Liz saw Max’s hands curl into fists. She knew he was going to launch himself at DuPris any second. She grabbed his arm. “Remember the compound, Max. Adam was being controlled by him.” She jerked her chin toward DuPris. “It was his power that killed Valenti and started the fire.”
“You understand me,” DuPris told Liz. “I could use a girl like you, a human girl. I suspect that you would be easier to keep in line than those two.” He gestured at Isabel and Adam. “They managed to slip away from me a few times before I got a firm enough grasp. But you, I’d like to see what I could do with you.”
Quick as a snake striking, he grabbed Liz’s wrist. “No!” she screamed.
7
Liz’s scream echoed endlessly through the cave. The sound paralyzed Max, freezing his muscles. He had to get between DuPris and Liz, but he couldn’t move.
No, that wasn’t true. He could move—he was moving—turning toward DuPris, but so slowly, it was almost impossible to perceive. Liz and DuPris—they were caught in the same phenomenon. Liz’s mouth was still open in the same scream. DuPris hadn’t tightened his grasp on her wrist.
Max felt a drop of sweat begin to trickle down his cheek, slowly … absurdly slowly. Time, he thought. The movement of time has been altered.
