by Daise, Sonny
They stood around us, bloody and beaten. I’d seen them before, and they almost killed me. Dante stared ahead into the lake. It stretched out so far, you couldn’t see what was on the other side, all there was, was the moon and its reflection.
He squeezed my hand tighter, urging me to jump. I pulled his hand back, hoping that he would look. I knew they were ghosts, but he’d seen ghosts before. My only question was, why were they back? And this time, they weren’t only in my dreams.
I thought to run, but there was nowhere to go. I went to speak, but my voice caught in my throat.
“You know that you can’t win,” one man said.
“What do you want?” I asked, thankful that my voice let me.
“What we’ve wanted all along. Help. When you get rid of the Alliance, you will set us free, but I have very little hope that you’ll make it through.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’ll understand tomorrow.” The man came forward. It was as if Dante was in a trance, either that, or he couldn’t see or hear them. The man grabbed me by my throat and threw me off the rock.
It felt like I was falling forever. I thought about tomorrow. How was I supposed to take on the Alliance, when I couldn’t even take on a few ghosts? I still had Dante’s hand in mine, but it didn’t seem as if he even knew we were falling.
We were submerged in the water. I could swim, but for some reason, I couldn’t reach the surface. I opened my eyes, and they surrounded me. They moved aside. They did it for a reason—to show me something: my lifeless body. I closed my eyes; my lungs were aching for air. I knew I was alive at this point, but why would I be seeing myself dead underwater if it wasn’t coming?
When I opened my eyes, Dante was lifeless next to my dead body, but it wasn’t Dante, I was still holding his hand. There was something around our dead bodies, it lit up for a moment, and then disappeared.
We must have only been underwater for a matter of seconds, but I felt reality slipping away. I didn’t know if a vision was coming on, or if I was just losing consciousness. I felt Dante’s hand pulling me up, but my foot was caught on something. His grasp loosened and then he was gone altogether, and all I was left with was darkness.
There was no vision, nothing. I was passing out, and I knew it. I couldn’t move; I couldn’t save myself. I was slipping away. I felt a horrible pain in my foot and moments later, I could feel the sturdiness of the ground underneath me. I felt pressure on my chest, and Dante’s lips touch mine; I felt air rushing into my flooded lungs.
My coughing woke me up. I could see Dante’s face and nothing else; the ghosts were gone. He pulled me up into his chest and held me there for a few minutes. I couldn’t speak without coughing. He pulled me away to look at my face.
“I was so scared,” he said. “We need to get you home to Cooper.”
“What?” I asked, confused. He looked down to my foot. My shoe was gone, and my white sock was completely red. “What happened?” I asked.
“I don’t know how, but your foot was caught under a rock. I’m so sorry; this was a bad idea.”
When we got home, Cooper healed my foot, and I was good as new. Dante and I went back out to the tent; we needed to be well rested for tomorrow. We set up our sleeping bags and zipped the tent shut.
“There’s something I need to do before tomorrow,” he said. “Close your eyes.”
I did as he said. I sat there waiting for at least a minute. I didn’t know what he was going to do, but I had an idea. The anticipation was building up, and it was getting harder and harder to breathe. Finally, when I didn’t think I could take it anymore, I felt his lips against mine. There was no difference between this and any of the other kisses Dante and I shared, but technically this was our first kiss—if you didn’t count him giving me mouth to mouth. He pulled away and sat there looking at me.
“What?” I smiled. He brought his hand to his lips.
“It was like electricity.” I couldn’t help but laugh. “I hope it’s not hard for you, with Allison being here and all.”
“Not at all, I hope it isn’t hard for you,” I said.
“Not at all,” he smiled.
When I woke up in the morning, the sun was just coming up. I sat outside the tent for a few minutes and thought about how the day would go. Grace’s power would definitely help us. Cooper’s power could end up being needed. Lily would be an advantage if she could still be in two or more places at once. All of that considered, I still didn’t know how we would make it through. I had no idea how many people there would be, and no idea what powers they would have.
Cooper came out the back door.
“Hey, are you guys almost ready to go?” he asked.
“Yeah, give me a minute.” I went back inside the tent to wake Dante up. Once he finally did, we went in the house, and everyone was ready to go.
“Hey Grace?” I said. “Do you have a pair of tennis shoes I could borrow?”
“Oh sure,” she said as she went to her room. “These are great for running.” She winked.
“Thanks,” I said.
Cooper, Lily, Allison, Jackson, Grace, Rose, and Rachel all got in Cooper’s car; there wasn’t enough room for all of us. Dante and I contemplated between driving and teleporting. In the end, we decided it would take too much strength to teleport, so we took Dante’s car. I was nervous, and I wasn’t hiding it well. Dante could see it, but he knew there was no other way.
We were heading to the Sunny Bay Alliance; I didn’t know it before, but Sunny Bay was a big part of the Alliance’s history. Not only was it the strongest division, but they were in charge of every division. If they told anyone to come, they would, and they wouldn’t have any other choice. They knew we were coming, and I had no doubt that they would try and be as prepared as possible.
I knew we were heading back into Sunny Bay, but Dante took a turn that surprised me. I wasn’t sure why he took it, or what he was planning, but I couldn’t keep myself from asking.
“Where are you going?” I wondered. I didn’t know where the Alliance was in Sunny Bay, but I knew for sure that it wasn’t down Dante’s street.
“I called my brothers they’re going to help.”
“Dante,” I started to say.
“The more people there are, the lesser the odds that you’ll get hurt,” he argued.
“Someone could still get hurt, Dante, and now you’re dragging your brothers into it.”
“They’ll be fine,” he assured.
“Do you even know what powers they have?” I asked. “I mean there’s a possibility that they might only slow us down.”
“No I don’t know what powers they have, but if I have powers they must, right?”
“Well, in theory yes, I don’t think that could have changed, but we still don’t know if their powers will be of any use,” I reminded him.
“I’m going to go inside real fast; I’ll talk to them. If it doesn’t seem like they could help, then I’ll tell them that they can’t go.”
He came back out alone. He didn’t get into what powers they had, but he said that I was right, and them being there wouldn’t stop anyone from getting hurt. Not to mention the fact that every single one of us was in that picture, his brothers weren’t.
We left and arrived at the Alliance’s neighborhood no longer than ten minutes later. We drove past the gate and up the road a little ways to park behind some bushes. Cooper and everyone else was already there waiting.
“What took you guys so long?” he asked.
“We just made a quick stop,” I answered. “Okay, Dante and I are going to go in and check everything out. We’ll come back and let you guys know what’s going on.”
“And if you don’t come back?” Jackson asked.
“Well, if we don’t come back, then I don’t know.”
“If you’re not back in fifteen minutes, we’re going in,” Cooper said, everyone agreed. I was a little nervous, what if fifteen minutes wasn’t enough time?
“First, we need to check where they keep their prisoners,” I said.
“Why?” Dante whispered.
“Someone in the picture… they aren’t with us, but I think I know where they are.”
We ran back behind the buildings until we found one that looked almost exactly like the one we went to before. Like that one, there was a door in the back, and it was unlocked. I ran down the stairs, and just as I suspected, the entire classroom was down there, along with some other people I didn’t recognize. We would need to get everyone out, but right now, it would be too much of a risk to get anyone out besides Annabelle. She was in the cell on the end furthest away from the stairs. No one knew we were here, and that was a good thing. I imagined Annabelle outside of the bars, and like magic, she was.
I grabbed her hand and dragged her to the stairs where no one else could see. If they saw us there, they would start a riot just like last time. Instead, all there was, was confused chatter. I went visible. She gasped.
“Shh, we came here to get you. We’re going to get everyone out, but right now I need you. I know this is a little sudden, but you’ve probably noticed strange things happening right? I remember when I first met you, we were at a beach; someone came after us, you put your hands up, and they flew across the beach. Does this make any sense?”
“Yeah, I just thought I was the only one, I didn’t want to say anything, I thought I was weird,” she whispered.
“No, no you’re not weird. We need your help. I’ll explain everything later, but we are going to fight the Alliance. Dante and I are checking things out right now. I’m going to find a safe place for you to hide, and we’ll come back for you, okay?”
“Yeah,” she said, sounding a little shaken up.
We went outside. There was a patch of bushes, I had Annabelle climb inside. As long as she was still, no one would know she was there. I turned invisible, and we went to go check things out.
All of the houses looked empty; it would take us hours to walk around the whole place. Finally, we came upon a large group of people; they were all sitting in front of a lake.
No matter what I imagined, no matter how many people I thought would be here, I never imagined a group of this magnitude. There must have been thousands of people, if not more.
I walked through the crowd to see what they were doing. A man who looked like pure evil, stood in front of all of them. I recognized a few of the faces; they weren’t people I knew—they were the ghosts from last night, the ghosts from my dream.
“Thank you all for joining us. I’m sorry we couldn’t have this meeting earlier, but at least the attack hasn’t happened yet. As you all know, the strongest of our kind has recently been found. She will come to stop us, and I’m sure she will be well-prepared and have backup. Even though she is strong, I do not see her winning this fight,” the leader said.
I walked through the crowd with ease with Dante at my side. When I got closer, I could see the man better. He was standing next to what looked like a cage.
“So how do you plan to stop her?” one woman asked.
“Everyone here has a necklace, whoever gets it on her, gets to kill her,” he smiled.
When I got to the front of the crowd, the man stopped smiling and reached his hand into his pocket.
“What if none of us can do it?” one man asked.
“Did I ever mention, that I am but a spirit trapped inside an unfamiliar body?” he asked. “It has its advantages, like being able to see what most people can’t. Being able to touch what most people don’t even know is there.”
The entire time he was talking, he inched a little closer to the crowd. Was it for effect? Or was something very bad playing out before my eyes?
“You are one of them?” a woman asked.
“Yes, have been for a few days,” he said nonchalantly.
People looked confused—a lot of people looked angry. They obviously recognized this man as a leader, but he was murdered and his body was stolen.
“You’re not our leader, so who are you?” Someone else asked.
“I’m the person who is going to get Scarlett Summers’ powers.”
The man ran at the crowd—more specifically at me. He grabbed me by the neck, and brought me up in front of the crowd. I knew immediately what this man’s power was as I felt electricity coursing through my veins. Making my hair stand on edge, making me lose consciousness. He threw me inside the metal cage after one last zap, and I lay on the bottom, unable to move.
“Go!” I tried to scream. I knew he heard me, but his outline didn’t move. “Go!” I mustered up enough energy to scream at the top of my lungs.
There was confused chatter among all of the people, they didn’t know what my powers were, I assumed, only that I, for some reason, was regarded as the most powerful.
“Let them see you,” the man said as he closed the door to the cage. I ignored him, and he got angry. “Now!” He screamed.
I did as he said, I needed to buy time. I knew Dante would come back for me, and I knew he would bring the others, but by then it might be too late.
“What are you going to do now?” One man said, sounding amazed.
“It’s nice to see you again Scarlett,” the man said, ignoring the other man’s question. “You do remember me, don’t you?” I shook my head. “You thought you didn’t have to worry about me anymore, didn’t you?”
“Ann?” I whispered.
“No,” he snarled. “What, you think Ann was the brains in this operation? She found you, but I constructed plan after plan, and you kept ruining it,” he screamed like a little girl having a fit. “Do you still have no idea who I am?”
“Hello Debby,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Well, are you going to get away this time? No, I don’t think so.”
“You know Ann was always in charge of things, you know she’s much smarter than you. Didn’t you think the last time you had me locked up in that disgusting place, that I might just come back once I got out? That I would see what the hell that place actually was?”
“I don’t have to listen to this,” she said in a calm voice as she walked in front of the cage.
I looked behind me at the water; it looked deep. When I looked back in front of me again, her hands were against the cage, and she was pushing it towards the water.
“Wait, what about my powers? You haven’t gotten them yet, and you’re just going to kill me?”
“You can kill someone before you take their powers, you just can’t leave any wounds,” she cackled and then turned her attention to the crowd. “I’m going to do something today that has never been done before. I’m a trapped soul, stuck in this body forever, for if this body dies, no one knows what will happen to me. No one has ever dared to try this. So, if I may ask, is anyone here a trapped soul as well?”
“I—I am,” one woman spoke up.
“Come up to the front please,” her voice rang.
The woman came up and stood at Debby’s side; she looked nervous. Debby reached her hand into her pocket and pulled out a knife. She turned toward the woman and drove it into her chest. There was no blood, and soon after there was nothing remaining but dust. A ghost, looking quite different from the woman, stood in front of me.
“What the hell?” the crowd roared.
Debby looked in the direction of the ghost and smiled, and then she turned back toward me. I looked behind her; Dante was standing there—alone. He must have gone to tell everyone and then teleported back. I smiled. I had a sudden
feeling that everything would be okay, but with one final nudge, I was submerged into the water. I didn’t sink as fast as I thought, but by no means was the process a slow one. I had no choice but to stand up and get my head above water, I took a deep breath, and soon the entire cage had sunk to the bottom.
I tried to concentrate, maybe I could use Dante’s power like I had before, but I couldn’t concentrate. I was running out of air, and my lungs were starting to ache. Seconds seemed like minutes, and I didn’t know what to do. Dante must have been trying to do something; I hoped he would get over this if I died. I hoped he would know that it wasn’t his fault, and that he tried as hard as he could.
I wondered now, if the dream that I had so long ago—the one where I was pushed off the cliff—was a premonition of my death. I wondered if my subconscious was trying to warn me, the ghosts tried to warn me last night. Allison—though she didn’t know it—warned me last night as well.
Suddenly, a faint blue and green light filled the cage. It wasn’t as bright as usual, and it lasted no longer than a second—if that. He grabbed my hand and closed his eyes. Again, a faint green and blue light lit up the cage, and again, it went out no more than a second later. I looked over at him as he opened his panic-stricken eyes—we were still inside the cage.
Now I really started panicking; we couldn’t get out. This must have been a special cage, one that blocked our powers or something, or maybe it was just impossible to use your powers underwater. I would never know, and neither would he. I just watched the one person in this world that I loved, kill himself. Now we would die together.
Then something strange happened, I was outside of the cage. A moment later, Dante was at my side. We were both safe. I went to go hug him; it simply couldn’t wait until we swam up to the top, but he stopped me. He turned me toward the cage. My lungs were no longer aching for air, and now I knew why; nothing had escaped but our souls.
We swam to the top, Nurse Debby was convincing the crowd that she only did what needed to be done, that everything was in the best interest of everyone involved.
