The Girl In Between series: Books 1-4

by Laekan Zea Kemp

“I’m not going with you,” Domingo said.

  “You might not be. But she is.”

  Domingo pushed Stassi behind him and I stood to his left.

  “Ah, Roman. You’ve been looking for your opportunity to be the hero.”

  “And you’ve been looking for your opportunity to test me.”

  “Yeah, funny how it’s all worked out.” Michael took a few steps toward us. “Now, I’m not sure what Domingo here has told you but we’ve always considered rescuing abandoned Dreamers to be an incredibly moral undertaking and we would want nothing more than to give this poor girl a safe place to stay.”

  “She’s not abandoned,” I said.

  Michael’s eyes flashed with curiosity. “Impossible.”

  Stassi lifted her face, and still trembling, she said, “You killed the wrong person.”

  Michael’s jaw tensed but he said nothing.

  “That day in Granada.” Stassi was clutching Domingo’s coat, trying to hold herself up as she spoke. “You killed Cesar because you thought he was protecting me. You killed him.”

  “The girl’s not well,” Michael said. “Andre, take her.” Andre hesitated and Michael raised his voice. “If the girl needs protecting from anyone, it’s Domingo.” Andre took a few more steps. “He’s—”

  “He’s my brother!” Stassi cried.

  Andre stopped. But before Michael could walk over to Stassi and grab her himself, Domingo raised his hand, light flashing as he cut a seam straight through the park.

  Bryn fell against my chest and I steeled us against the pull of the vortex, grass shredding up from beneath our feet and the leaves ripping from the trees. Debris swirled around us but between the flecks of red and brown I saw Michael forcing his way through. Then he raised a hand, thrusting a wave of light toward Domingo that drew sparks when they crashed.

  I pushed Bryn towards Sam. Even though she was dreaming her injuries could still carry over to her body. “Take her. Go back to the hotel.”

  “I’m not leaving you.”

  “You will. Go!”

  Bryn had this strange look in her eyes and then she gripped my shoulders, pulling my head down. Flames scattered like dust over our heads and I could see Andre pulling Valentina out of the way, Charles behind them screaming Michael’s name. But he didn’t stop.

  A body barreled into me. It was Shay. She crouched over Sam, a hand raised at the ready, and then she hurled one of her grenades at Michael. She missed, flames skittering across the ground, but not before he saw what she’d done or which side she was standing on.

  Stassi fell at Domingo’s feet, trying to claw out of reach, and then he collapsed too, shielding her with his entire body. Michael charged forward, reaching for them, and then I was on my feet. I saw Bryn and Sam stall in the corner of my eye as I stepped between Michael and Domingo but then I lifted a hand and they continued running.

  Michael’s eyes swelled over the light radiating from my entire body, so bright that it distracted him while I snatched him by the collar of his shirt. He hissed a laugh but before I could ignite, Michael folded in on himself. He seemed to split in two, something dark pulling him to pieces until he blinked out.

  And then he was gone.

  Just like the shadows. Because he was one, his insides cored, nothing but darkness animating every word he’d said and every step he’d taken. And I hadn’t seen it. No one had.

  One by one we gravitated toward the place where he’d just stood, staring down at the grass, up at the sky.

  Valentina’s voice broke. “What was that?”

  “Exactly what it looked like,” Charles said.

  “No.” She shook her head. “It can’t. He can’t be.” She screamed Michael’s name.

  Then Charles shook her, gripping her shoulders. “He’s dead. He’s been dead for a long time.”

  41

  Bryn

  When Sam and I reached the hospital I watched her race to the observation room she’d been sleeping in before I hurried to find Dr. Banz. When I stepped inside his office he was pacing, as usual.

  “Oh, Bryn. You’re here.”

  “I’m sorry I didn’t come by last night,” I said, still trying to catch my breath. “Something…” I took a few steps toward him, lowered my voice. “Something happened.”

  “Are you alright?” he asked.

  “No,” I said, honest. “The Rogues are fighting. Michael betrayed them and Sam’s been navigating us to strange places in the dreams and my grandmother’s gone and I think it’s my fault.”

  He was in shock, his lips dry and wordless as he tried to usher me to a chair. I didn’t sit.

  “Bryn, I need you to breathe.”

  I tried but each one was shallow and hard to hold onto.

  “Start with your grandmother,” he said, trying to ground me.

  I told him about the dream I’d had of my great-grandmother being taken and how Anso had seen me step out from behind the trees. “When I woke up my grandmother was gone and my mom says she died before I was even born. It’s like she’s been wiped from their memories.”

  “You say her sister’s the one who said that you had the ability to manipulate the future?”

  I nodded.

  “But you weren’t in the future. You were in the past and now it seems you’ve changed the present.”

  “So how do I undo it?”

  After what had happened in the park and at the Köln building I needed my grandmother more than ever. Even if she was wrong about me, even if there was still so much we both didn’t know, I needed her.

  “I have to find a way to reach her again and I have to do it now. I lost her in the dream. Maybe I can find her there too.”

  “I’m sorry, Bryn, but I’m not even sure where to start.”

  I mimicked his usual pacing, fingers scraping at my scalp as I tried to think.

  “If the dreams are the key it’s the middle of the day,” he went on, “and I’m not sure you’d be able to calm down long enough to sleep. Bryn, will you sit down for a minute?”

  “Sedate me,” I said. “Give me something that’ll make me sleep long enough to find her.”

  “It’s risky,” he said. “Who knows what kind of effect medication would have on your dreams right now? Especially when combined with the duress you’re under.”

  I shook my head, pleading. “It’s our only option.”

  I followed Dr. Banz to the observation room next to Sam’s. Two nurses came in, helping me into the chair, the wires colder after a long week away. He leaned over me, checking the connections, and up close I could see that he was sweating.

  One of the nurses brushed the inside of my elbow with antiseptic and I watched as she led the IV needle directly into the faint red scab Sam had pointed out after we were attacked by the shadow in the antique’s shop. It was the only wound that hadn’t disappeared after I’d woken up.

  After the nurses left, Dr. Banz handed me an old photograph. There was a farmhouse in the distance, tall grass bowing in an invisible breeze.

  “What’s this?” I said.

  “We’ve been navigating a lot on theory lately and I think it’s time you found some definitive proof. It’s important that we know you visiting your grandmother’s past wasn’t some cosmic coincidence but that you somehow chose it. That you made it happen. And if you did, going back there might only do further damage until you’ve figured out how to navigate with more precision.”

  I didn’t want to disrupt the past again. It was too dangerous. Not to mention the fact that unless I was in total control I risked landing in a time or place that could do even more damage. Maybe even make my grandmother disappear for good.

  “Focus on this,” Dr. Banz said, pointing to the photograph again.

  “You want me to go here?” I asked.

  “I want you to try. It’s a neutral safe place to test our theory. Now, we’ve only given you enough sedative to induce sleep for a couple of hours. I don’t want you to accidentally slip into another epi
sode. But as soon as you wake, depending on how you feel, I can give you another small dose.”

  Dr. Banz left, pulling the door closed behind him as I held the picture against my knees, my fingernail tracing the lines of the trees and the porch and the clouds in the sky. The film was grey and cracking, some distortion bleeding in the bottom left hand corner.

  I flipped it over, examining the back, but there was no date and I wondered if it was one of Dr. Banz’s or one he’d just found in time for the test. The word made my palms sweat, not just from the pressure of sleep but from the pressure of failing. But Dr. Banz was right. The only way I’d be able to revisit the moment my great-grandmother was taken and put things right was if I knew that I could control it.

  No more accidental explosions. No more shattering glass. No more breaking things. No more mistakes. I needed to learn how to control what I could do and I needed to learn it now.

  My mom crept in, dropping my bag of clothes by the wall and I turned my head, letting her know I was awake.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to—”

  “You didn’t,” I said, my voice a little dry.

  I’d just called to let her know that I’d be at the hospital all day but I should have known she’d come. I glanced at the clock and realized I’d already been lying there for almost half an hour, fighting sleep without even knowing it.

  “How are you feeling?” she asked. “When you called I couldn’t tell if it was urgent.”

  “Fine,” I said. “Everything’s fine, I was just scheduled to stay here last night and I forgot. I didn’t end up getting very much sleep so I decided to come early today.”

  “So they hooked you up in case you take a power nap?” she asked, smiling.

  I lifted my arms, the wires dangling from them. “Yeah, something like that.”

  My mom looked down. “Well, good. I was worried it had something to do with…with what you said last night. About your grandmother. I was worried maybe you weren’t feeling well.”

  “No.” I didn’t know what else to say, what else I could say.

  My mom made her way to a chair, never taking her eyes off me. “You know, sometimes I dream about her too. Sometimes it feels like it’s really her and I forget for a little while that any time has passed at all.”

  I’m going to fix this, I wanted to say. I promise. I’m going to get her back.

  She sighed. “And other times I know it’s just a strange dream.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked.

  “You’ve never had nightmares after eating junk food for dinner?” She smiled but then she stopped herself. “Sometimes she doesn’t look like herself. Sometimes she’ll say strange things and it reminds me that it’s a dream and the opportunity to savor it is just…gone.”

  “Strange things,” I said. “Like what?”

  “I don’t know. I don’t really remember.” She waved a hand. “Once I think she told me I was pregnant with the moon.”

  “What happened to her?” I asked.

  My mom was still. I knew there was some family history I was missing, my memories not having been replaced like everyone else’s. But I could also tell that there was still some mystery there just by the way my mom had tensed when I’d mentioned it that day in the hall. It made me think it wasn’t something we normally talked about and maybe that meant there was a lot I never knew.

  “I mean, really,” I said.

  “We…don’t know.” My mom wrapped her arms around her waist, holding herself together as she said, “She just disappeared one day. Left us.”

  “Why do you say left?” I asked.

  She shrugged. “I guess I shouldn’t. It’s just when I look back on her raising us it was like she knew. Like she was always waiting for that moment.”

  “What do you mean?”

  My mom’s cell phone rang. “Oh, it’s your aunt. Let me see if she needs something.” She pressed the phone to her ear “Lizzy?”

  There was buzzing, my aunt’s voice raised.

  “What? Are you sure?” My mom pressed a hand to her face. “Okay. I’m coming.” She hung up.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked.

  “It’s Dani.”

  My pulse was in my throat. No.

  My mom furrowed her brow and shook her head. “Your aunt said she and Felix were fighting.”

  “Fighting,” I repeated, unable to hide my relief. “About what?”

  “She didn’t say. She just said the hotel manager called our room saying there were several noise complaints. She’s going to check on them and call me back.”

  “What?” I’d seen Felix and Dani bicker before but that’s all it was. “That doesn’t sound—”

  “I know. But apparently the other guests are ready to have us kicked out and I’ve got to get back to make sure that doesn’t happen.”

  “Would they do that?” I was already reaching for the wires, ready to go with her.

  “I don’t think so. The hospital is paying them a lot of money. I doubt they’d want to lose the rooms.” She saw me trying to get up and led me back down to the chair. “No, you let me handle this. Everything will be fine.”

  “Are you sure?”

  She feigned another smile. “You rest. Who knows? You might wake up and find Dani in a strait jacket on one of the other floors.”

  “Let me know how it goes,” I said.

  She nodded. “I’ll be back as soon as I can. I told the nurses to bring down the guest cot so I can stay with you for the night.”

  “You didn’t have to do that,” I said.

  “I know,” she said. “But I wanted to.”

  After my mom left I reached for the picture that was stuck under my knee. I tried to concentrate, to rein in my focus but I was still confused by the thought of Dani and Felix fighting. I wondered if he’d mentioned moving in together again and she’d just snapped. Maybe she still wasn’t feeling well. Maybe he just said something stupid like he always did. Maybe…

  Think. Concentrate. Concentrate on the photo.

  I’d bent the corner a bit and tried to smooth it out as I attempted to commit the scene to memory. Fatigue hit me then, drawing my eyes closed no matter how hard I tried to fight it. I struggled to keep them open, trying to examine the photo for just a little bit longer. I needed it to be right. It had to be right.

  Sleep pressed down on me, heavy, and suddenly I wasn’t sitting in that chair anymore. I was standing, grass tickling my knees. I looked around and saw the house, the trees, the clouds up in the sky. The breeze pricked at my arms, ushering me toward the front steps.

  It worked.

  The porch creaked under my feet and then I was reaching for the door. The floorboards let out another moan as my hand hovered over the doorknob.

  “Hallo?”

  I turned toward the voice.

  A tall thin girl in a flesh colored dress stood in front of me. She had thick eyebrows and dark black hair that made her green eyes look artificial. Freckles pocked her long nose. I took a step back, her closeness sending a cold chill down my back.

  “Who are you?” I asked.

  She eyed me curiously and then she said, “Eve.”

  42

  Roman

  I led Andre, Shay, Domingo, and Stassi back up to the seventh floor of the hotel and into my room. They moved around, stiff-legged and awkward, trying to find a place to sit and figure out what to do next. Valentina, Charles and the others had headed back to the safe house to try and figure out a way to track down Lathan.

  “He’ll come for her, you know,” Andre said.

  Domingo clenched his fists. “I know. He’s too desperate and because of that the shadow’s too powerful.”

  “What does that have to do with anything?” I asked.

  “Michael explained to you how the shadows drive us mad,” Andre said.

  I nodded. “He said they make us believe we’re the thing to fear. They make us hate ourselves.”

  “That way we’ll think staying away from
our Dreamer is doing them a service when really we’re just putting them in danger. For Michael, well, he hated himself long before the shadows took hold of him.” Andre tapped a fist against his knee, shaking his head. “They feed off that shit.”

  “And since the darkness that was already in him wants the same thing as the darkness that’s in him now…” Domingo sighed. “There’s nothing that’ll stop him from trying to take Stassi.”

  “What does Michael want with her?” I asked.

  It had been hell trying to get Stassi through the city. She’d clutched her ears, head swaying from side to side, the force of whatever was haunting her dropping her to her knees more than once on the way back. Finally Domingo had to carry her the rest of the way, his hold on her the only thing that seemed to quiet her mind. But I still couldn’t tell how that made her different, special. I waited for Stassi to answer but her eyes were closed, her body worn out.

  “She can see things that have already happened and sometimes she can change them,” Domingo said.

  Bryn.

  But it wasn’t just the past she’d been able to change. It was the present. The future.

  “And Michael?” I said.

  Andre cleared his throat. “Michael had this theory that if he found Stassi he could find a way to bring back the others.”

  “You mean the ones you’d lost?” I asked.

  Andre nodded. “Who wouldn’t want that?” He turned to Domingo, eyes filled with remorse.

  “It’s okay,” Domingo said. “You didn’t know.”

  “Know what?” I sat on the edge of the bed, anxious. “You know, I’m sort of out of the loop here being new and all. I’d appreciate a crash course on Michael and his minions if you don’t mind.”

  “Watch it,” Andre grunted. “I was one of those minions just a few hours ago.”

  “And now?”

  Andre eyed Domingo, both of them trying to decide who should do the talking.

  Finally, Andre exhaled. “Michael’s been holding down the fort in Lathan’s stead for the past year. That’s a long time to be out of touch. Michael claims he’s in Eastern Asia somewhere. The Philippines or Thailand. But after hearing every excuse in the book as to why he’s not back yet a few of us grew suspicious.”