And Then What?

by D. R. Graham

  I hugged Kailyn and Jim before I filled everyone in on what had happened. Jim looked tenser than I had ever seen him look. I hadn’t even mentioned the fact that the helicopter was shot at as we left. If he knew that, he would have probably rushed out to rescue them himself.

  “Is Trevor lost?” Kailyn asked me.

  “No. He’s finding Mason for me. Then they’re both going to come here.”

  My mom’s arms wrapped around me. She always knew something tragic was going to happen to Trevor one day. She knew he would risk his own life for someone else one too many times and I would lose him forever. I murmured, “I’m sorry. I messed up so bad.”

  I waited for her to agree, but instead she reassured me, “They’ll be back soon.”

  Orrett hobbled into the lobby on crutches. I let go of my mom and ran to him. “Sophie!” I yelled and slowed down so I wouldn’t knock him over. I gingerly gave him a hug.

  “Hey, you’re alive!” He beamed.

  “So are you!” I exclaimed.

  Sophie rushed over to us and hugged him. His wife and son came in behind him, so he introduced us and then we made him meet our families.

  “Where’s Bill, or Mason, I should say?”

  I bit my lower lip and clenched my eyes shut.

  “What? Is he okay?”

  “I don’t know. We were separated and he didn’t make it back to the camp. They’re still searching for him.” I pulled out Mason’s lab results and handed them to Orrett to look at. “What do these mean?”

  He frowned at them for a while before handing the paper back to me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “He needs to see a doctor.”

  CHAPTER 23

  It was frustrating that nobody would tell me what was wrong with Mason, but they didn’t really need to since it was obviously something bad.

  My mom led me up to her room where I showered and changed into fresh clothes. Then I called my granddad. He was extremely worried, so I pretended to sound optimistic. I could tell he didn’t buy it and after I hung up I laid on the bed staring at the ceiling in a depressed stupor.

  “You should try to eat something,” my mom said and rested her hand on my shoulder.

  “I’m not hungry.”

  “Well, at least come down and sit with everyone. You might be able to eat some salad or something.”

  I knew I couldn’t eat, but I hoped being around everyone else would distract me from the worse-case-scenario reel that was playing in my head repeatedly. I stood and followed her to the elevator like a zombie. My brain was in a total fog and every time I blinked, I saw images of being in the forest. It already seemed like a dream that didn’t really happen. I couldn’t remember getting from the elevator to the restaurant, but I must have because when I looked around I was sitting at a table with my mom, Jim, Kailyn, Sophie, and Doug. They all had plates piled high with food and they were deep in conversation with each other.

  Jim got up from the table and came back with a milkshake that he put down in front of me. “Try this, Deri. You need to eat something.”

  “Thanks.” I stared at the milkshake for a while, then got up and wandered outside in a daze. The path that I ended up on was the one Mason and I had taken from the nightclub to the beach. I stared at the paving stones thinking about how, only a few days earlier, his feet had stepped in that exact spot.

  My thoughts drifted again into memories, both good and bad. I sat on the sand where Mason and I had hung out. I picked up a handful and let the grains run through my fingers. I wasn’t sure if a vision would be that helpful since the terrain they were in wasn’t familiar to me, but I wanted to try. Unfortunately, nothing happened.

  “Hey.”

  I looked over my shoulder. Doug was standing above me, silhouetted by the moonlight. “Hey.”

  He threw his leather jacket on the sand, then sat down next to me and stared out at the ocean. “Do you want to talk?”

  I shrugged. “What’s there to say?”

  “Nothing, I guess.” He stared out over the water. “Just wanted to make sure you know I’m here for you too.”

  “Thank you.” I reached over to give him a hug. “Did the band have to cancel some shows for you to be here?”

  “We rescheduled them.”

  “Sorry.”

  He shook his head to dismiss my concern. “It’s not your fault.”

  I raised my eyebrow and dug my heels into the sand.

  “Trevor and Murphy are going to find him.”

  I sighed. “Do you ever wish we could just go back to being kids again, when life wasn’t so complicated?”

  “No. I like being an adult—even if it’s hard sometimes.”

  “Rock stars aren’t really adults,” I teased, and shoved his shoulder, then I sighed at the thought that three people I cared about were still in danger. “Is Sophie the only girl you’ve ever loved?”

  He nodded. “Yes, and she’s the person I want to be with forever.”

  “Forever is a long time.”

  “Yeah, but I can hardly breathe when we’re not together, so that’s how long it’s going to have to be.”

  I closed my eyes and nodded. “I know how you feel.”

  He squeezed his arm around my shoulder and we sat like that until Sophie found us. They invited me to go for a walk with them but I didn’t feel like it. Instead, I headed back to the room to get Mason’s letters, then I went to the lobby and hung out on the couches. I hoped that reading them might trigger a vision about where he was, but I was also a little reluctant to have a vision since they usually signalled something traumatic. Maybe no intuition news was good news.

  At midnight my mom took Kailyn upstairs to sleep in her room and Jim hung out with me. It was quiet in the hotel after the nightclub closed. The waves crashing on the beach were the only sound I heard as I read more of Mason’s letters. Jim rested his head back on the leather couch and drifted to sleep with his legs stretched out in front of him.

  When morning arrived, the staff set up the breakfast buffet. A few guests walked through the lobby. Some looked as if they were going for a jog and some were dressed for a swim. I was so tired, but I refused to let my eyelids close for longer than a second. I vowed to not rest until I knew they were all safe. That was my punishment. I also decided that if they didn’t all make it back safe I would punish myself more severely.

  At about nine o’clock, a black SUV pulled up in front of the hotel. I sprung to my feet and ran to the curb. Mr. Cartwright stepped out, but no one else was with him.

  “Did they find him?”

  He shook his head with a grim seriousness. “I haven’t heard anything yet.”

  My stomach hurt so badly I had to clutch my side. The pain made me buckle over. I must have scared Jim because he was next to me in moments. “What is it, Deri?”

  I couldn’t speak.

  “We haven’t heard from them yet,” Mr. Cartwright answered for me. “I had to leave because we heard more shots being fired. It wasn’t safe for me to be in the village. The helicopter will be close and on stand-by. We’ll get them out of there as soon as they show up.”

  Jim bent over and lifted my arms to drape them around his neck. Then he slid his arm under my knees to pick me up. “You need to get some sleep.”

  “No.”

  He didn’t argue with me, he just carried me to the elevator and took me to my mom’s room. He put me down gently on the bed and covered me with the blanket.

  “Come on, Kiki, let’s go get some breakfast,” he said and they left.

  My mom didn’t say anything. She just sat down on the bed beside me and rubbed my back. I fought to stay awake so I could continue punishing myself. I tried to have a vision that would help me see what was going to happen, but my body betrayed me and I fell asleep. I had a series of nightmares, none of which made any sense, except the one of Mason walking with his brother through a grassy field. At one point, I abruptly woke up and I could hear screams in my throat straining to
escape from behind my tightly closed lips. My mom moved to hug me. “Shh. It’s going to be okay, sweetheart.”

  Without speaking I rolled out of bed, stumbled down the hall, and took the elevator back down to the lobby. I sat on the leather couch and waited. I vaguely remembered Sophie sitting with me for a while. Jim was in and out. My mom tried to get me to eat, but I was basically unresponsive to all of them. I stared out at the curb and waited for a black SUV to pull up.

  It got dark outside again and guests who were all dressed up walked by to go for dinner. Eventually, the bass from the nightclub started up. It got late and I’d been alone for a while when Kailyn sat down beside me and put her hand on mine. “Don’t be scared. When you’re scared it makes me scared,” she said. Tears pooled up in her silvery-grey eyes.

  I saw Trevor in her eyes and I immediately snapped out of my stupor, for her sake. “Okay. Do you want to get something to eat with me?”

  “Yes. I like the midnight buffet. They have giant shrimps.”

  “Sounds good.” I dragged myself off the couch and into the dining room. I knew Trevor would have wanted me to be strong for her. It was the least I could do.

  “When will Trevor and Murphy find Mason Cartwright?” She asked as we walked along the buffet table.

  “Soon.”

  “Is Trevor going to be mad at him for getting lost in the forest?”

  “No. He’s just worried, not mad.” I sat down at a table with a plate full of food and stared at it.

  “If Trevor doesn’t come back will you be sad?”

  “He’s coming back, Kailyn. He will always come back.”

  “If Mason doesn’t come back will you be sad?”

  I nodded and swallowed back my emotions. “I’ll be devastated.”

  She popped a shrimp in her mouth. “What does devastated mean?”

  “It means the worst-possible sadness.”

  She nodded as if she understood exactly what that meant, which only broke my heart more.

  When she finished eating, she headed up to my mom’s room. I left my full plate on the table and went to sit in the lobby. I must have fallen asleep again because the next thing I remembered was waking up when someone touched my hand. I opened my eyes. Jim sat beside me on the couch. As soon as I saw the expression on his face, I knew something was wrong and I bolted up. My insides felt as if they were caving in. “What is it? Just tell me.”

  “We heard from the camp,” he said seriously.

  “Is he dead?”

  “He’s not dead. They just can’t find him and they need your help. You need to try to see where he is.” He gently lifted my chin with his finger. “You need to try to see where he is before it’s too late. They can’t do it without you.”

  CHAPTER 24

  After Jim told me I was the only hope for finding Mason, I got up and walked away from him. I grabbed an apple from the buffet table to try to give myself some strength, then wandered around the resort to find a quiet place to focus and have a vision. I still worried it wouldn’t help much since anything I saw would probably just look like Mexican forest and wouldn’t give any clues to where Mason was. But I was determined to try.

  I sat on the sand where Mason and I had hung out on that first night. I cupped my hands to hold the sand. Then I let the tiny white grains trickle between my fingers. It seemed almost as if I could smell Mason and feel the warmth of his body next to mine. I closed my eyes and listened to the waves rolling up on the beach. I heard him laughing when we were in the mess hall at the camp. I saw him frowning when I told him that I was still with Trevor. I also felt his heart beat against my chest. The images started to flash at a disorienting speed. He was sitting next to me on the bus smiling as we talked about Britannia Beach; leading me through the ancient ruins; carrying me through the forest on his back; keeping me warm in the cave.

  I opened my eyes and stared out at the ocean. An hour passed, and despite extreme concentrated effort, I didn’t have a vision. I needed to try something different—maybe if I touched his dad’s hand. I got up and rushed to go find Mr. Cartwright.

  An elderly woman approached me along the garden path. “That’s a beautiful pendant,” she said as she passed by me. I pressed my hand to my chest and held the pendant. It triggered a vision: Mason was in a meadow with his brother. He was lying in the grass staring up at the sky. Cody was sitting beside him keeping him company. He looked up and pointed at a stone pyramid at the edge of the clearing. He smiled and then disappeared.

  My eyesight came back into focus and there was a cute guy standing in front of me. He chuckled. “You okay?”

  “I have epilepsy. Excuse me.” I rushed past him and ran to the lobby to find Jim. “I saw a pyramid. He’s in a meadow somewhere near a pyramid.”

  Jim quickly unfolded a map on the coffee table. He pointed. “This is where the team is right now. This is where they found you. This is where the village is.” We both scanned the area around that to see if there were any open grassy areas or ruins. We both spotted it at the same time. He stood and took the map over to where Mr. Cartwright was. Mr. Cartwright frowned and shook his head. Jim became tense and his voice got louder. I stood and walked over to them.

  “I’m not sending the team on a wild-goose chase because Derian has a feeling that’s where he is,” Mr. Cartwright said.

  “It’s not a feeling. She sees things,” Jim said.

  “Sees things? What does that mean?”

  “Listen, I can’t explain it, but I’ve witnessed her do it before. She has strong intuition and she’s saved lives doing it.”

  “I don’t have time for this. If you have some legitimate Search and Rescue advice I’ll take it into consideration, but I’m not going to take a hunch that a girl who thinks she’s psychic has.”

  “You don’t have to send your team if you don’t want, but I’m sending Trevor and Murphy. Put me in contact with them.”

  Mr. Cartwright shook his head in disagreement but handed his phone to Jim. Jim paced around and gestured with his hands as he explained everything over the phone. He hung up and gave the phone back to Mr. Cartwright. He winked at me, then walked over and stretched his arm across my shoulder. “Good girl. They’ll find him before it gets dark again.”

  I went through another night in exactly the same way—a wreck. Jim must have carried me up to my mom’s room again because I woke up to the sound of the key card sliding through the lock. The door opened slowly. To my absolute relief Trevor stepped into the room.

  I jumped up off the bed and bounded across the room to leap into his arms. He hugged me tightly and I felt the tension leave his body. “Is everybody okay?”

  “Yeah.” He leaned back to kiss me and then smiled, as if he thought I was amazing. “We found him right where you said he would be.”

  My eyes blinked slowly with the weight of the worry releasing. “Where is he now?”

  “At the hospital.”

  “He’s hurt?”

  “No. They just got lost when they went too far south and walked past the village. He’s at the hospital to treat the dehydration and to follow up on those test results.”

  “How long will he be there?”

  “Until this afternoon probably.”

  I wrapped my arms tighter around his shoulders and leaned in to whisper in his ear, “Thanks for finding him.”

  “You’re welcome, but you found him.” He lifted me off the ground in a bear hug. “We couldn’t have done it without your help.”

  I smiled with pride and then wrinkled my nose as he placed me back on the ground. “You need a shower.”

  His eyebrow shot up in a mischievous way. “Your mom gave me her key and headed off to the beach. We have the place to ourselves for a while if you’d like to join me.”

  I pulled my t-shirt off over my head and unbuttoned my shorts before I spun around and raced him to the bathroom.

  My mom stayed at the beach all morning to give Trevor and me some privacy, which was unusually cool of
her. She preferred to believe that I was still a virgin and that I would be one until I got married, so normally Trevor and I had to sneak around to be together. The fact that she was willing to accept our relationship made me realize it was probably time for me to be cool about her and Ron’s relationship.

  Trevor was asleep, so I sat cross-legged on the bed next to him and read the rest of Mason’s letters. He wrote about how he had started feeling sick and he was telling me about how he wasn’t that concerned, but obviously he sort of was, or he wouldn’t have mentioned it in the letter. His last letter was written a week before he ran into us in Acapulco. I read it twice. He described the symptoms he’d been having and he mentioned how Orrett and the nurse were insisting that he get blood tests done. He was scared because they were the same symptoms Cody had had before they found out he had cancer, and because they were twins the nurse was concerned that he might have the same thing. The last line was: Derian, if I could wish for anything, it would be for you to be here with me so I would have someone to talk to. I know we can’t be together, but I don’t want to be alone. I miss you, Love Mason.

  My tears dripped down onto the letter and made the ink run.

  “You okay?” Trevor asked as he rolled over and placed his hand on my leg.

  “He’s sick,” I said and turned to make eye contact with him. “I have to go to him.”

  Trevor nodded as if he already suspected I would want to. “I know.”

  “Thank you for understanding.” I leaned over and kissed him, then got off the bed and grabbed Mason’s backpack. “I love you.”

  “Love you, too.”

  I left the room and headed down to the lobby. Mr. Cartwright was standing near the door, talking on his phone, so I waited for him to finish.

  When he hung up, I smiled and asked, “Is Mason back yet?”

  “Why?” His tone seemed unnecessarily short.

  “Because I want to see him.”

  He made a strange face and rubbed his chin. “Uh, Derian. He asked me to tell you that he doesn’t want to see you.”