Before the Dawn (8 page)

"Trevor? Are you okay?" she asked before he
could even speak.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he assured her quickly.
"I'm—in the Ballroom, in one of the private rooms. How did I even
get here? Anyway, where are you? You just disappeared." He sounded
a bit dazed, like he had just woken up, too.

"I'm in my room at home. Come get me, okay?
We'll go to school together and talk about this." She was already
moving to get ready. Her feet were hurting more than ever and she
felt exhausted, but she had to check if the other kids she knew
were all right. Trevor promised he'd be at her house as soon as he
could then they said their goodbyes. She immediately began to dial
Cassie's number after hanging up on him.

"Cassie? Cass, are you okay?" The worry and
nervousness made Aline speak too loud and she heard her friend
grumble on the other end of the line.

"Aline, what is wrong with you?" Cassie
complained, and Aline was incredibly relieved to hear the other
girl’s familiar voice. "It's too early. I still want to sleep."

"No!" She almost yelled. "Get up. Don't go
back to sleep." But Cassie hung up on her before she could say any
more. Her calls to Sam and Meran also woke them up and, like
Cassie, they both sounded tired and confused when she insisted that
they meet up in school really early. Gracelyn, however, was still
not answering her phone, and Aline began to be very scared for her
friend as she remembered the lost expression on Gracelyn’s face
that she glimpsed before she and Trevor made their escape from the
Prince.

A brief shower, a change of clothes, and
fresh bandages on her feet and hand later, Aline was ready and
waiting for Trevor to pick her up in less than an hour. Then she
cursed when she finally noticed the bloodstains on her bed sheets
and the carpet. Her feet had bled on the two, and they were now
streaked with ugly red marks. She stripped the sheets off her bed
then went downstairs to the laundry room so she could stuff them in
the washing machine before her dad could see them. The carpet,
though, was a lost cause. For the meantime, she just covered the
blood with some dirty clothes and other stuff she could throw on
the floor without making it too obvious she was trying to hide
something. Then she went downstairs again.

"Dad?" she called out. She hadn't heard him
puttering around in the kitchen earlier, but maybe he was up and
about now. "Hey, Dad. I'm going to school in a bit." There was no
answer. "Dad?" Curious, and worried, she tortured her feet by
checking each room in the house that she thought he could possibly
be in. He was nowhere to be found, though. But she also couldn't
see his cellphone and his laptop anywhere, and she knew he'd never
leave home without them, so maybe he had left for work very early.
It certainly wasn't unusual for him to do that. Besides, and by now
she realized that she was just trying to reassure herself with all
the excuses she could think of, he hadn't been at the ball last
night. So there was no way Raven and the Prince had gotten their
hands on him. Right? She called his phone and got his voicemail, so
she left him a message to call her back and she had to be content
with that because there really wasn't anything else she could do
about it right now.

The doorbell rang then and, when she saw
Trevor outside, she couldn't help herself. She was so happy and
relieved he looked okay that she threw her arms around him and
hugged him as tightly as she could. "Oh, thank God you're safe!"
she whispered against his neck and he just made a sort of
comforting rumbling noise as he held her close. "Last night really
happened, didn't it? It wasn't just a dream?" She was silently
begging him to tell her that none of it had been real.

"It was more like a nightmare," he said
softly. "Especially when I saw you running away from that guy and
you looked so scared. I wasn't sure I could protect you." His lips
grazed her ear as he spoke and, instantly, the mood between them
altered. She was suddenly very aware of how tall he was and how his
body was wrapped up against hers. She also realized that their
faces were really close.

They both made the decision to move even
closer and their lips met in their first kiss. She felt slightly
guilty for letting the thought flash through her mind for a few
seconds, but this was nothing like kissing the Prince in her
dreams. That had been a seduction, tempting her with the promise of
how wonderful surrendering to passion could be. Trevor's kiss was
different. It didn't demand, it asked for her response. It was warm
and passionate, yes, but it didn't try to take her over. It was
just—Trevor, and being with him and being close and sharing
themselves with each other. It kind of felt like coming home.

When they finally broke apart after several
minutes of being lost in each other’s kiss, they were both
grinning.

"That was," Trevor thought for a second,
"different." He leaned his head down again and gave her another,
quicker kiss. "Why does it feel like I've done that a thousand
times before?"

"I don't know," Aline replied with a smile.
She couldn’t believe how light and happy she was feeling right now
in his arms.

"You know," he said conversationally, "when
all of this weirdness is over, we need to go on a date." He winked
at her.

"Absolutely!" she agreed. "But no dancing,
though," she quickly added.

He nodded. "You bet. I have two left feet
anyway." Then they just smiled at each other goofily for a minute
or two, enjoying the strong new feeling of closeness between them.
Finally, he asked, "Are you ready to go?" She nodded and locked up
the house behind her, and then she made an uncomfortable discovery:
Trevor drove around in a motorcycle.

"Have you ridden one of these before?" he
asked a bit worriedly when he saw the expression on her face.

"No," she answered. "Never." She felt like
her entire body was starting to freeze up.

"What's wrong?" he frowned. "If you've never
ridden one and you're nervous, it's okay. It's completely safe. I'm
a careful driver."

She took a deep breath to steady her nerves.
"I'm sorry if I look freaked out about this, but I have a bad
history with motorcycles, one in particular." Then, in a quiet
voice, she told him about the accident that had killed her mom.

"Oh, God." He looked miserable. "I'm so
sorry. I had no idea."

"It's okay." She tried to smile at him.
"Anyway, it's still early. We could catch the bus instead?" she
suggested. "It stops a block away from here. That's what I usually
do when my dad isn't around to drive me to school."

"Sure," he nodded. "We'll do that." He seemed
eager to make her forget about the memories that had suddenly come
rushing back to her. She told him he could leave his bike in their
driveway then they went off to the bus stop. While they walked, he
noticed the way she was limping, so she also told him about the
poor state of her feet.

"What?" He was aghast. "Then you shouldn't
even be walking around at all. Aline, this is crazy. You're going
to make your feet worse. And what if you get an infection?" He
seemed ready to go on and on about it, but she interrupted him.

"It’s fine. I’ll be fine, I promise. We’ve
got more important things to worry about right now," she told him.
"You know, I think I may have some kind of theory about what’s been
happening to us, and it's connected to that silver leaf I gave you.
Have you still got it, by the way?"

"Of course," he confirmed, and he took out a
small plastic case from his backpack and shook it. The leaf made a
rattling sound as it bumped against the sides of the case. "I think
this leaf kept me safe last night, or it acted as some kind of veil
or something." He wouldn't say any more about it though, but he
promised to tell her later about everything that had happened to
him during the previous night before he ended up in that strange
ballroom. For now, they both agreed that they would first have a
talk with Aline’s friends about what they could remember regarding
her birthday party and last night.

The two of them didn't speak much during the
bus ride to school. They sat near the back and she just leaned
against him while he put his arms around her. The other kids gave
them curious looks when they recognized Aline, and she knew that
the news would be all over the school before lunchtime that she and
the new guy, Trevor whatshisname, were playing kissy face on the
bus. But she didn’t really care. There were other things that she
had to worry about today.

It turned out to be a really good thing that
she and her friends had homeroom together with Trevor in the
mornings. It gave her the chance to talk to everyone right away.
While the classroom filled up and she waited for her friends, she
looked around carefully to study the other kids in their seats.
Most of them had gotten invitations to her birthday party at the
Ballroom and she had seen them dancing with the people in the
Prince's castle last night. This morning, they all looked pale and
tired, a fact that only increased her anxiety levels. When Meran
walked in and she also looked exhausted, Aline became even more
anxious. Meran seemed surprised to see that Trevor was in the
usually empty seat on Aline’s right as she slumped down in her own
chair, but she didn't say anything about it and Aline just shrugged
at the questioning look she got from the other girl. So, instead,
Meran bitched about Aline’s early morning call.

"Seriously, the sun had barely risen," she
complained. "You're not supposed to call anyone that early. It's
illegal or something." Then she yawned widely.

"Meran," Aline said slowly, "why are you so
tired?" She wanted to hear what her friend’s answer would be.

Meran blinked and looked surprised as if she
had just realized that very fact herself. "I'm not sure," she
confessed with a shrug. "I slept early last night. I should be
well-rested. But, yeah, I do feel bad, like I ran a marathon or
something. And my feet hurt worse now than they did yesterday."

"They're not bleeding, are they?" Aline
asked.

"No, no," Meran shook her head. "Just really
sore. But, hey, I just thought of something, or I remember
something, I mean. You met that cute guy named Raven at your party,
right?"

Aline suddenly felt cold. Beside her, Trevor
tensed. "Yeah, I did," she said carefully. "What about him?"

"He came to see me last night," Meran said.
"He's really weird. But I think he’s okay. If he'd only shut up
once in a while. He's always arguing with me about something." She
gave an embarrassed laugh and blushed. "It's kinda stupid, but I've
dreamed of dancing with him for two nights now. Really stupid, I
know. You don't have to tell me."

Aline didn't know how to react to her
friend’s little confession. On one hand, she was scared sick that
that freak, Raven, had dared to come to Meran’s house. But, on the
other hand, she was furious at him and the Prince for playing their
twisted games with her and her friends. What did those two want
from them anyway? She was about to warn Meran to stay far, far away
from Raven when Cassie and Sam finally arrived—and Sam was
crying.

Before they could ask her what was wrong, she
told them the terrible news.

"Guys, it's Gracelyn. We found her in her bed
this morning, and
she wasn't breathing
!"

***

Chapter 9

It took Sam a while to tell them exactly what
had happened. Earlier, she had dropped by Gracelyn's house so they
could go to school together like they usually did, but Gracelyn
hadn't been waiting for her. So she and Gracelyn's mom had then
gone to her cousin's room to check up on her and they had found her
lying in bed. At first, they thought she was just sleeping, but
then Sam noticed her chest wasn't moving and she wasn't breathing
at all. Gracelyn’s mom had called the paramedics immediately while
Sam herself gave her cousin what CPR she knew. For several long
seconds, it seemed like they were going to lose her, but she
started breathing again when Sam redoubled her efforts at
resuscitating her, and the paramedics had then arrived just in time
to make sure that Gracelyn would continue breathing. After that,
Gracelyn had been taken to the hospital while Sam, though terribly
reluctant to do so, had been made to go to school.

"My Aunt Joni said she'll call if there's any
news at all," Sam said, wiping away the tears that had never
stopped flowing while she was telling them her story. "Oh, God! Why
would something like this happen? She seemed totally fine the last
time I saw her."

"And when was that, Sam?" Aline asked,
feeling sick to the pit of her stomach at this latest news.

"It was," Sam frowned in thought, "well, it
was during your party. I didn't see her or hear from her at all
yesterday because I slept most of the day. And I barely woke up
today!" She shuddered. "I wasn't feeling all that well myself when
I got ready for school, and I even thought about just getting my
mom to call in and tell them I was sick. God, if I had done that,
who knows what would have happened? Maybe no one would have seen
something was wrong with Gracie in time!"

Sam's crying was renewed but, this time, it
was in relief that they had been able to help Gracelyn before
something much worse could have happened to her. Aline hated doing
this to her friend especially when she was so upset, but she kept
asking Sam questions until she got the answers she needed about the
mysterious stuff happening to them. Like everyone else, Sam had a
hard time remembering what had happened to them during Aline’s
birthday party and she was equally vague about her memories from
last night. Cassie and Meran pretty much said the same things,
which kind of made them annoyed because they said Aline was being
weird.