Twisted (#1 Deathwind Trilogy)
Page 38
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The next few days pass in a haze.
My parents don’t harass me to clean my room or to do the dishes at all over the next couple of days. Tommy comes early one morning and we go for a walk on the side of town that’s not damaged. We hang out at the park for a while, keeping to the barren corner where the kids and their parents aren’t hanging out. I keep my phone on all the time now that it’s charged, but I hear nothing from Uncle Cassius. I’m not sure if I want to, to tell the truth.
“Still not calling you?” Tommy asks when I check my phone for the thousandth time.
“He’s probably left. Gone back to Nebraska to meet back up with Madeline and Kyle. Since they seem to be his new best friends.” He’s got to be helping them pick out another town that’s going to be filled with new Outbreakers when the Deathwind is done with it. “I’m scared to call him, to tell you the truth. I’d rather not know what he’s doing right now.” I feel less involved. Less guilty.
“Wouldn’t you rather know if they stop the Deathwind from forming the biggest tornado in the history of the world and killing a bunch of people?” Tommy asks. “That kind of, you know, concerns me.”
“It does me, too.” I tuck my phone back in my pocket. I need to stay out of this. That’s what Uncle Cassius would want. That’s what I want. That’s what I need. But I can’t. “Okay. We’ll walk past his house. See if he’s gone.” I’m not sure which will make me feel better or worse.
We make the walk. A lot more of the damage is cleaned up now and even one of the roofs has been fixed on Uncle Cassius’s street.
And Uncle Cassius’s car is still in the driveway.
“That’s weird,” Tommy says. “I thought he’d be gone.”
“So did I.” I’m up there, knocking on the door seconds later. He opens it after a minute, dressed in jeans and his Don’t disturb me, I’m disturbed enough already T-shirt. Uncle Cassius even smiles. That makes me feel better. It’s as if nothing’s wrong at all.
“Any updates?” I ask. “You haven’t called.”
He waves us in. “Sorry. I didn’t know if you wanted me to contact you.” He closes the door behind us. “I did talk to Madeline this morning for a minute. She seems pretty confident everything’s going to be wrapped up soon.”
“That’s good.” I look down at the floor. The sting of betrayal still burns in me. A big part of me had been hoping that he hadn’t talked to her. “Do you think the Deathwind’s going to blow up and kill?”
“I doubt it, Allie. Madeline and Kyle are smart. They’ll figure something out before it does.”
“They can’t have much longer.” A new terror creeps up inside me. I might be immune to getting killed by storms now, but everyone else, everything else in its path…
“There’s lots of small towns in the Midwest,” Tommy says. “They’ll pick one out in Kansas or something and it’ll all be said and over with. If they haven’t already.”
“You’re probably right,” I say. Tommy and I turn towards the window. Down the street, there’s another trio of fallen trees that a few guys are chopping up. Uncle Cassius has had to look at this for the past few days.
But it’s far better than what I had to see in Evansburg.
I feel sick. That memory isn’t something I’ll outrun for a very long time, if ever. It must be even worse for Dorian. It’s his town. He can’t get away from it like I can.
“Allie. I can tell what you’re thinking. Think about something else.”
Tommy’s leaning over, face all concern. He pulls me close into his comfort and the piles of debris and debarked trees fade from my mind. Uncle Cassius goes to blow his nose in the living room.
I breathe out slow.
I’ve got to deal with this. At least for now.
“Hey,” Tommy says. “Want to go down to the parade in a bit?”
“Parade?” The word’s foreign on my lips. It’s too normal to belong.
Uncle Cassius returns to the kitchen and closes his curtains. “It’s the Fourth of July, Allie. Did you lose track?”
“I guess I did.” I turn to Tommy. “We should go. It’ll distract me.”
“I’ll stick close by,” he says. “Just in case.”