Aftermath

by Jenna-Lynne Duncan

  I should fight the two dark shadows approaching me. I should never give up. After everything I’d been through, I couldn’t let this be the way I died. I couldn’t let them kill me so easily. But I was frozen. Frozen in the past. Locked in the memories of just one of the many times I would almost die.

  A gush of wind, one after the other, blew past and the dark shadows were gone as far as I could see. A new presence came with the wind and I knew that the shadows hadn’t just left, they had fled. This was getting fast out-of-control. The sounds of bugs and nighttime creatures returned and I knew I was alone for the time-being. “Luke!” I called out to him again, my voice shaky and sounding like a cry. Where was he? I knew he could hear me. Why did he have to believe in me so much? This was a stupid idea. I found myself wishing Hayden was there, for once appreciative of his over-protectiveness.

  I felt the ground with my hands, working my way over to the trees. I dug through the cold mud, pulled up a promising branch to use if necessary, and started moving once again to find Luke. I debated whether to walk or run. Running didn’t pan out too well last time but as I heard the impending silence around me again, I knew it was my only option. Before I could sprint, I felt a hard, angry arm around my waist and I was lifted into the air, upside down. I still had the stick in my hand and was prepared to use it until I realized what, or who, had caught me.

  “Drop the twig, Ana”

  “Hayden?” The combination of his touch and smell brought back all the familiarities at once.

  He didn’t answer. I let out a slight squeal as I was thrown over his shoulders. Hayden felt like a rock underneath me. “Hayden?” I pleaded for some sort of response, and when I didn’t get one I changed my tone. “Put me down! We have to find Luke.” Wrong words. Hayden tensed slightly at my comment.

  I heard footsteps in front of me, and I quickly panicked.

  The footsteps slowed “Whew!” Luke. “All I have to say was what the f—“

  “Shut it, Luke.”

  “Geez, somebody came back from Texas cranky. Ana is that you?” I slumped against Hayden’s death grip, my mind running through everything that happened in the last ten minutes. I had lost Luke, possibly come close to death, and Hayden had returned early from Texas. “Damn. I thought I told you to go back to the car!”

  “And you expected her to comply? “ Hayden scoffed sarcastically.

  Hayden dipped down and picked up the key chain I had dropped earlier. The adrenaline that ran through my body now eased, leaving me a headache from the extra blood that shot through my head. I winced.

  “Are you okay?” Hayden and Luke said simultaneously and I felt Hayden’s head snap in the direction of Luke. There was too much tension in the air. I dreaded when I would have to answer questions about what I was thinking to go along with something like this. Even though it wasn’t Luke’s fault, Hayden would blame him anyway.

  “I’m fine,” I finally answered.

  When we got to the gate I only saw one car and wondered how Hayden got here.

  “Where’s the truck?” I mumbled.

  “Home.” He clipped. Uh oh, the one word answers were not a good sign.

  The lights on the car flashed as it was unlocked.

  My head throbbed again as Hayden sat me down in the back seat.

  “I’m driving,” Hayden said as a command to Luke.

  Luke threw up his arms in surrender. Not even he wanted to push Hayden any further tonight.

  “Hayden…” I started, as we pulled away from Lafitte.

  “Not now, Ana. I’m not ready to talk about this now.” His jaw muscles clenched.

  “Why the hell not?” Luke butted in, obviously deserting his previous position of not pushing Hayden. “You can’t shelter her from the Underworld forever. She needs to know, has to know! She saved the guy's life for God’s sake. This could be something.”

  My eyes shot up. I had been able to change the future?

  “We are not doing this now,” Hayden said through his teeth.

  “Whatever, man. It was amazing. She was amazing. Think about it, now we don’t have to go Hunting later. How lucky did we get that this thing, or these things, weren’t human?”

  Hayden froze at Luke’s last word. But his emotions quickly changed into something else. Anger? Jealousy? I didn’t know. “Are you really that stupid? You could have gotten her killed! I know you’re all bent on destroying your own life but leave my girlfriend out of it. You say you love her but then you put her life in danger. If you truly loved her, you would leave her alone. She is with me. Whatever you are trying to do to prove otherwise is not working and is going to get her killed!”

  “Don’t even start with me. Yeah, yeah we all know your sob story. Well, who the hell cares you’ve been waiting a hundred years for her? She is my true One and you know I will never, can never, stop trying to make her love me!”

  “Whoa, hello? I am right here. Stop fighting and stop talking about me like I am not right in front of you! I was, once again, almost killed. That may seem like a walk in the park for y’all but I am freaking out back here and have a killer headache so if you guys could, please save your displays of testosterone for another day.” Hayden whipped around a curve before finally slowing down. I rubbed my temples, trying to make the throbbing go away.

  “No problem, babe.” Luke turned his head to wink at me. That was apparently the last straw for Hayden. The car jolted to a stop and I hit the back of Luke’s seat. A new pain shot through my head.

  “Ah, shoot!” I said with my hands over my face, feeling like I broke my nose.

  “Ana, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—“

  “Just please take me home,” I moaned.

  “What is your problem, Hayden?” Luke turned toward me, holding out his hand to touch me. I was too busy cringing in pain to notice what was about to happen. “Are you ok, Ana?”

  “Don’t. Touch. Her.” I heard a thump and my eyes shot open. The drive felt like it took forever. Please let's just make it home.

  I leaned through the middle, creating a barrier between them. “This is ridiculous. You guys are being ridiculous. Please just stop. You are brothers, or did you forget? And I really don’t have the time, energy or desire to play referee, especially when it’s about me.” I dropped my head, gripping it with my arms. I felt the car start moving again and a few minutes later the fluorescent lights of the garage lit up the car. The engine went off and no one moved until I lifted my head.

  Luke’s hand was on the handle, his torso turned to exit. “Just so you know, this isn’t about the curse or what has happened between Ana and me. This is about her. Just her. And I believe in her, something you fail to do. If you haven’t noticed, Ana isn’t one to sit back and not do something. She’s not made of glass; she can handle herself. She can be something more and tonight has proven that. Just as she has believed in me, I will never stop believing in her.” The car door slammed behind him.

  Hayden helped me out of the car and we walked inside toward the kitchen. He handed me a bottle of water out of the fridge and two headache pills from the medicine cabinet.

  “Thanks,” I said before popping them in my mouth. I thought I would need the whole bottle with the way I felt.

  Hayden looked me up and down for the first time, noticing my over-sized male shirt. I squeezed my eyes shut not wanting to explain, or not knowing how: either one, I just wasn’t sure at this point. When I opened my eyes, sympathy displayed all over Hayden’s face. I sighed, taking a step into his arms, my hands curling to his chest. He kissed my hair multiple times and I finally felt the pain subside.

  Chapter Three

  “That was awesome!” I came down to the breakfast table the next morning, my hair still damp from a shower.

  Luke and Hayden shared the same look of curiosity and confusion. No one commented in return and I was too impatient to not continue. “Last night. That was—“

  “Crazy? Dangerous? Stupid?” Hayden looked at Luke with the last one.r />
  “—Incredible!” I sighed. “The running, the excitement.” I slammed my hand down on the counter for effect. “We saved someone’s life. Someone’s life, can you believe it? I dreamt about it. We went there and it came true right before our eyes and then BAM- we stopped it. How amazing is that?” I sat down at the breakfast table next to Hayden. “I can’t wait to do it again.” I molded into the chair with a sigh.

  “You sure did a one-eighty from last night,” Luke spoke.

  “Feeling better, I suppose?” Hayden smiled at me and leaned in for a kiss.

  “Yes. I feel great.”

  “That’s amazing considering you had a bad headache last night, it’s just after six and we have to go to school.”

  “I know. It’s weird, isn’t it? I just feel like I have so much energy. I just want to run around or something. I can’t wait to do it again.”

  “Do it again?” Hayden eyed me, trying to hide his nervousness.

  “Well, I’m not exactly sure how this psychic thing works, but yes, I would want to, have to, do it again.”

  “How about we just get through today? It is the first day back and you have dinner with your father. We can talk about this later tonight. You didn’t have another dream last night, did you?”

  “Surprisingly, no. I slept great. How are you feeling?”

  Hayden’s eyebrows drew in. “I’m fine, why?”

  “I just thought since you’d be going back to school today, I don’t know, maybe you’d feel uneasy?” I took a bite of buttered toast Hayden had left out for me.

  He looked at me curiously, with a half-smile.

  I continued. “It’s high school, not hunting down ghosts. The same way I would feel uneasy about hunting, maybe you feel that way about high school?”

  “That’s very thoughtful of you, Ana. But no, as long as I am near you I could never be uneasy.”

  “You technically don’t have to go. I know I wouldn’t if I didn’t have to.”

  He laughed. “Yes, I am well aware of your skipping tendencies, but you know why I am going. Luke, on the other hand,” he turned his head towards Luke, obviously still angry about last night, “doesn’t have to go.”

  “Uh, yeah I do. I’ve never graduated before.”

  Hayden scoffed. “You have been tutored your whole life. You’ve had enough credits to graduate since you were twelve!”

  “Yeah but I have never gone through all the formal stuff. What do you care anyway?”

  “I love how all-of-a-sudden you care so much about going to a mortal high school when a month ago you would have fought me just for mentioning it.”

  “Things change, brother,” Luke looked at me and winked, “things change.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Speaking of school, we'd better leave now if we don’t want to be late.”

  Hayden still watched Luke with a clenched jaw. I kissed him on the cheek. “C’mon.”

  It was my first day back at Ecole since Katrina. Slowly, students and teachers had started to return and the school was now officially open. Ecole, thankfully, didn’t suffer that much damage from Katrina. Some other schools had fared a lot worse. Nikki and Marie met me at my locker before class. I was glad at least that remained the same.

  Nikki frowned when I opened my locker. “You’re lucky you had nothing in it, Ana. I had mine all decorated and had to throw everything away. Gah, I hate mold!”

  Marie put an arm around her. “We’ll help you get new stuff.”

  “I know, I just had pictures up of us,” Nikki sounded truly sad. “I won’t be able to get those back.”

  I looked around the hall; it was empty of any familiar faces. “Where is everyone?”

  “A lot of people haven’t come back yet.” Nikki looked in the direction of my glances.

  “Really? It’s been over two months.”

  “I know but, I mean, look at what we have to deal with: flood damage, and now we have to share books? I don’t blame them.”

  “Share books?” I felt totally lost.

  “Uh yeah, we lost a lot of books because of Katrina. Plus because of what happened to the gym, we lost half of the football team.”

  “We didn’t lose everything,” Marie added.

  “What do you mean?” I was dazed, still taking in all the new information.

  “There are a lot of new faces from some other schools.”

  “Yeah, not so friendly faces either,” Nikki agreed.

  “I feel like I have no idea what’s going on. Not only does it feel like the first day of school all over again but it feels like a completely different school.” I had hoped my decision to return to Ecole was the right one. I had wanted to hold on to this part of my life, to have something normal. Nikki and Marie meant so much to me and I hadn’t seen Rachel for a while.

  “I know what you mean,” Nikki nodded, slumping her shoulders. It made me sad that she was so dispirited. She was always the one that kept us going.

  “Look y’all. It will be fine, just give it time. Look how much this city has accomplished in just a couple months. We can do this. We will be back, okay? Let’s be glad we have each other at least, right? Isn’t there any good news?”

  Nikki shrugged but Marie’s eyes lit up. “At least there will still be Mardi Gras.”

  “Of course there will still be Mardi Gras. And at least we still have the same schedules. Speaking of, I have to go meet someone before class.” I shut my locker.

  Nikki and Marie both looked at me with the same devious smile, they thought I was talking about Hayden.

  I felt my cheeks start to warm. “What?”

  “Oh, nothing you lucky dog. See you at lunch?”

  “Yep. See you later.” I told them over my shoulder as I walked toward class.

  My morning classes went by quickly and painlessly since Hayden was in my classes. At lunch, Nikki and Marie met me in the commons and we all ate together with Hayden and Luke. It was the first time we all publicly hung out at school together and I couldn’t help but feel giddy about it. Just a few months before, Nikki, Marie and I were just admiring the mysterious Boudreaux brothers from afar. Now, a lot of students were watching us, probably wondering just what had happened since Hurricane Katrina.

  “Ugh,” Luke threw down a garlic dipper in disgust. “Remind me why we aren’t hitting up Brennan’s for lunch?”

  Nikki and Marie giggled thinking he was joking. There were still enamored by Luke, and I knew it would take some getting used to before they were all comfortable around each other. I smiled in good nature but Hayden gave him a hard look.

  Luke shrugged harmlessly. “Not even take-out?”

  Nikki and Marie— okay, and I—laughed harder.

  Hayden must have replied because then Luke said, “Well, if I’m going to have to eat, it may as well be something decent.”

  “Luke…” Hayden warned.

  He pushed himself to a stand. “All right, all right. I am going to head off to my favorite class.” A smile threatened his lips. His next class was AP World history, which was one of my classes with him. Hayden had wanted to switch into all my classes, but he didn’t for the same reason he and Luke split them up: to not look suspicious. I thought back to the first day of school when Hayden was originally in none of my classes. I had even pretended I wasn’t disappointed. Then, Hayden had switched into my first three classes. I remembered how odd it was, but I was confident he wouldn’t be sharing the rest of my schedule as I'd had AP and two senior-level classes. I had been right: Hayden wasn’t in the rest of my classes but it came as quite the shock to find that Luke was. Who knew my suspicions were right even then? They had switched into all my classes; they even came to Ecole because of me. Now, they were staying because of me.

  Nikki and Marie left in turns until it was just Hayden and I at the table. I told him I better go early to class to talk to my teacher and, first and foremost, friend, Rachel. I looked forward to seeing her again. She had seemed so distant since everything that had happened.
Maybe it was because of the hurricane or maybe it was something else entirely. I remembered how she had first helped me discover the truth about the Lalaurie house. Being a history buff, I had asked her the background to the haunted mansion. “Stay away!” she had warned. She was right. That house was evil.

  “Ana!” She hugged me and then awkwardly released me as another student entered. She directed me out into the noisy hallway but lowered her voice. “I’m glad you came early today. I apologize we haven’t been able to talk much. The internet is still out in our area so if you sent any emails you now know why I haven’t responded.” She inhaled sharply in brief frustration.

  “It’s okay, I understand. I have been busy, too, volunteering at Habitat.” She gave me a knowing look and I nodded at her in agreement.

  “Everyone’s been stressed around here, even the pharmacies are out of stock on anxiety meds. I just don’t want to lose sight of what’s important,” she added.

  I thought back to my dreams and had a moment of zoning out.

  “Everything okay, Adriana?” Rachel’s voice brought me back to reality.

  “Yeah, it is, sorry.” I blew out a breath.

  “How’s your dad?”

  I wished this time that my biggest problems were my father. “He’s fine. Same old, same old.” I hadn’t told her that I had moved out, or that I lived with Hayden and Luke, for that matter. There was so much she didn’t know, which was ironic considering she used to be the only person I told everything to.

  “You know, there was a fire at the Lalaurie mansion…”

  Where did that come from? “Oh, really?” I spoke coolly. Now I wasn’t just keeping things from her, I was lying.

  Seconds passed. As she searched my face for something, more students entered her classroom. “I just thought you’d like to know since I recall you asking about the house before,” she finally said.