Oblivion (5 page)

“Raine!” I scream, throwing the covers off me and

running over to her. “Raine, what the fuck are you

doing?”

But Raine doesn’t respond.

I move across the cave to Hadley, trying to summon

up my powers, trying to help her, to get her back onto

the ground. Her eyes are completely white now, and

her head lol s from side to side. The sides of her

mouth are pul ed back into a grimace. A drop of

blood fal s from her mouth to the floor.

“Raine!” I scream. “Raine, stop it!” But she’s stil in a

trance.

Cam’s awake now, and he runs to Raine, shaking

her, trying to get her to stop. I try to concentrate al

my energy on her. But it’s not working.

Hadley’s head snaps back. The blood that was

dripping from her mouth has turned into a yel owish

green phlegm. She lets out a groan, and then drops

to a ground in a heap.

“Hadley!” Cam screams.

Her neck is tilted at a grotesque angle, completely

broken.

I turn away feeling my stomach clench. I throw up

onto the floor of the cave.

And when I turn back around, Raine stands up. She’s

no longer wearing the hoodie she had on when we

found her in the woods.

Now she’s wearing a white tank top. And in the light

of the iPad, I see the necklace on her neck. It’s

bigger than her old one, black and gold with a thicker

chain.

She looks at Hadley. “She’s dead,” Raine says,

nodding in satisfaction. And then she laughs.

I wake up from a half-remembered nightmare into a

waking one.

Someone yel s, but I can’t tel who it is.

Something is wrong.

There’s a strange blue-ish white glow in one corner

of the cave, and shadows moving about. Voices are

raised and echoing in the empty, dank confines.

I hear sobbing.

And laughter.

When I realize what’s going on, I rush over to Raine.

The next few minutes are a blur. And then it’s too

late.

“She’s dead,” Raine says, and laughs.

Thank god Natalia’s not hurt. When I get to her, she’s

kneeling down next to a lump on the ground.

“Jesus!” I yel when I see what’s happened to Hadley.

Her face is white, with splotches around her bulging

eyes, and a grimace on her face that looks like she’s

about to scream. Only she’s not screaming. She’s

not even breathing. Her neck is cocked at an angle

that’s not even possible. Then I see jagged white

bone protruding out from her throat and I have to look

away.

Natalia’s crying, shaking.

I look at Raine and she’s watching it al with an

amused grin. “Oh, so sad.” She puffs out her bottom

lip. “Poor little Hadley.”

“Raine, why the fuck did you do that?” I ask, my voice

trembling with rage and fear.

“It needed doing.” She gives me a wink and strides

to the glowing iPad laying on the ground. Then she

picks it up.

Nat spins. “That’s mine.”

“Not anymore.” Raine’s smile fades as she looks at

both of us. “You two are lucky that you’ve both been

nice to me the last few days. Especial y you,” she

says, focusing back on Nat.

Natalia stands up and straightens and I sense that

she’s gathering herself to fight Raine. And I know

that if she does this awful situation is going to get

much, much worse.

But Raine suddenly throws her arms wide and her

entire body starts to glow with a white light that’s

nearly blinding. Her dark, silvery butterfly necklace is

pulsating with a red fire. “Do you think you can even

hurt me if you try?” she asks. “I could destroy you

right now.
Destroy
you.”

“Then why don’t you?” Nat says, taking a step toward

her.

“Don’t goad her.” I move in front of Natalia so that I’m

physical y shielding her from Raine. “Just leave us

alone,” I say to Raine. “We don’t want to hurt you. We

tried to help you.”

Raine stares at me and even after everything she’s

done, I can stil see her beauty.

I know this is part of the spel but it doesn’t matter.

She has that power over me. We have a bond.

She smiles. “Oh, Cam. Always playing the white

knight for your little delicate flower.” The glow slowly

surrounding her dies out and she drops her arms to

her sides.

“Nat saved me when I was trapped down in Hadley’s

basement. And so she gets a pass from me for now.

But I wil deal with her. Soon.”

And then she strides out of the cave, taking the iPad

with her.

Natalia tries to run after her, but I won’t let her go.

“Don’t do it. She’l kil you if you try.” I hold her and

she breaks down in my arms. Her sobs are so loud

I’m afraid someone might hear from outside.

“Hadley…She’s d…d…dead.”

“Shhh. It’s going to be okay,” I lie. “It’s going to be

okay.”

***

no way we could stay there with Hadley’s body and

her wide, staring eyes. I’l never forget the way she

looked, but I try to put the image from my mind as we

walk through the dark forest with only the moonlight

to guide us.

“It’s quiet,” Nat says, as we stop for a moment to try

and get our bearings.

I stare up at the moon and stars, trying to see if I can

figure out which direction to walk by fol owing the

North Star or something. “I haven’t heard any

explosions or fighting for hours now, so I can only

assume the battle is over.”

“Yeah. And I think I know who won.”

I look back at her. Her face is lost in shadow but I

know she’s stil real y shaken up. “We can’t do

anything about what happened tonight.”

“But I’m the one who convinced Hadley to let her

come with us—”

“That’s because you’re a good person. And I agreed

with you, so I guess it’s my fault too?”

Natalia sighs. “I don’t know.”

“We didn’t kil her, Nat. Raine kil ed her because

she’s a vicious psycho.” I shake my head. “We can’t

worry about Raine now. We need to find a way out of

here.”

So we start walking again, even though neither of us

is sure where we’re going.

Eventual y, though, we find the down slope of the hil

and fol ow it to where it levels off again.

We walk. And walk. And walk. And after what feels

like hours stumbling around half-blind, I hear noise.

It’s the sound of occasional y passing cars.

We’re near the highway.

Nat and I break through the trees and suddenly we

see the blacktop stretching out on both sides of us,

and down the road, the light from a Shel Gas

Station.

“Come on.” I take her hand and together we run

across the road.

“What now?” she says, as we arrive on the other

side.

I point to the gas station. “It looks open.”

“We don’t have a car to gas up, Cam.”

I look at her and laugh. “No shit.”

“Did you mean what you said to me before?”

“About everything being okay? Of course I meant it.”

“No, the other thing.” She looks down at the ground.

“Which thing?”

“When you said you loved me?” She looks back up,

her eyes meeting mine.

“Did you mean it?”

“Yes.” I pul her close to me, and kiss her, holding her

in my arms for a long moment. Final y, she pul s

away.

“Come on.” She sounds determined, like al she

needed was a moment of with me to get her strength

back.

A bel rings softly as we enter the station. There’s an

older man drinking an enormous fountain soda and

reading a newspaper at the register. He looks up at

us, surprised, wiping his mouth with a dirty napkin.

“Mind if I use your phone?” I ask, trying to sound as

normal as I can given the circumstances.

“You kids okay?” he says, looking at us careful y.

“You look…spooked.”

“We’re fine,” I tel him. “Just had a little car trouble.” I

point to the phone sitting beside the register. “So

can I use it?”

He shrugs. “Sure. Be my guest.”

I pick up the receiver, watching the double doors,

hoping I won’t see anybody we know walk through

them.

I dial the number and hope he’l answer. Sometimes

when he’s sleeping it would take an earthquake to

wake him up and even that might not do it.

After four rings I’m starting to give up hope.

But final y there’s a clatter as the receiver is picked

up and the familiar gruff voice answers. “This better

be good.”

“Dad, it’s me.”

“I know, Campbel . I have cal er ID. What’s wrong?”

“I can’t go into it now, but I’m okay. I’m just kind of

stranded at the moment.”

“Stranded where?”

“Somewhere in Maine. About an hour from your

house, I think.”

“I’m coming. Give me the address.”

The attendant tel s me the address and I repeat it to

my father. There’s noise on the other end, like heavy

breathing, and it comforts me to picture him starting

to get dressed and putting his shoes on. Coming to

get me. Dear old Dad.

When I hang up the phone, Nat looks at me. She’s

got her arms wrapped around herself, and she looks

so smal and fragile. I walk over and hug her.

“Your dad’s coming to pick us up?”

“Yeah. He lives close enough, and I think it wil be

safer if we hide out there for a few days before going

back to Santa Anna.”

The attendant is watching us warily. We walk over to

the doors and peer outside.

The street is empty and desolate.

“Now we wait,” she says, stil staring out the glass.

***

Navigator drives in and parks a few feet from the

building.

We’re just about walk outside when Natalia looks

back at the attendant. “Thanks for your help,” she

says.

He’s been mostly working on a crossword puzzle the

last half hour or so, but now he glances up at us and

gives us a tentative smile. “No worries. You two stay

safe now.”

Nat looks at him for a long while. “We wil . And it

would be nice if you didn’t mention us to anyone.”

“Mention you?” He cocks his head, puzzled, and then

wipes his mouth again with that dirty napkin.

“Right. Like, if someone comes in here and asks if

you’ve seen two kids fitting our description. Maybe

you could just tel them you don’t remember seeing

us.”

He chuckles, but he looks nervous. “Now, why would I

do that?”

Suddenly, Nat’s stare grows cold. “Because you

don’t. Remember. Us.”

She grabs my hand and pul s me out the doors. I

look back and see the attendant fal back into his

seat with a stunned look on his face. He blinks a few

times, but he’s not even watching us go.

Cam’s dad looks like an older version of Cam –

dark hair, tal , broad shoulders.

He also looks pissed. Of course, I guess I would be

too if someone cal ed me in the middle of the night to

come and pick them up.

“You made good time,” Cam says as he gets in the

car. I slide into the backseat next to him.

“Yup,” his dad says, sounding short. He doesn’t say

anything else, or ask who I am, or what the hel we’re

doing in Maine at a random gas station in the middle

of the night. He just pul s the car back onto the

highway. This must be usual behavior for him,

because Cam doesn’t try to get his dad to talk. He

just pul s me against him, and then rol s the window

down in the backseat, flooding the car with the crisp

night air.

His dad does eighty miles an hour al the way back

to his house. I think about how just a few weeks ago,

this would have made me nervous. But now, after al

the dangerous things I’ve seen and been involved in,

it doesn’t even register.

We get there in a little over an hour, to a huge house

on the water, with big glass windows that look out

over the ocean. I’m not a real estate expert, but I

realize that this house must have cost a lot of money.

“We’l talk in the morning, Campbel ,” Mr. El iot says,

slamming the car door behind him. “You can stay in

the pool house.” He walks up the driveway without

looking back. Cam swal ows, and I see the anger on

his face -- a reaction to how his dad is behaving.

“There’s a pool house?” I say, trying to lighten the

mood. “You didn’t tel me we were going to be living

it up OC style.”

“OC style?” Cam asks, looking confused. We’re