Book of the Hidden (13 page)

     
"Jean.... What is it?"

     
Jean shook her head holding her hands against her face, choking. "Akia....."

     
Vivian looked behind her. Akia stood there shaking her head. "I just unpacked, and I got a vision.... I sent Levine as soon as I found out, but it was quick. I promise you, Vivian, it was quick. I know she did not feel any pain."

     
"Who? Akia, give me a straight answer!"

     
"Karen."

     
"Aunt Karen?" Vivian shook her head, falling on the floor next to Jean.

     
Jean nodded her head clutching the shirt on her stomach slowly rocking back and forth. "It's too late now," she hiccuped. "We never were a family again...."

     
Vivian put an arm around her sister pulling her close. True, they were never a family since they changed, but who wanted to be family with them? Aunt Karen was their closest relative, and without her, there was no going back, but Vivian never wanted to go back, it would be a disgrace upon herself, and the Underground Palace. Jean didn't see it that way though. She saw it as a lost opportunity for a family that she lost so many years ago.

     
"Wh- what's wrong?" Jake stood at the doorway behind Jean, and behind him was Seth.

     
Vivian shook her head, unable to say anything.

     
"Their aunt passed on," Akia said quietly. "She must have fallen asleep at the wheel. She drove into a tree at the side of the road."

     
"'Must have? You don't know for sure?" Seth raised an eyebrow accusingly.

     
"I cannot read everything dear. I do not know all the answers, I only know what I see."

     
Vivian could feel Seth's eyes on her, and next thing she knew he knelt next to her pulling her in his arms. Without meaning to, she leaned on him, her head resting on his shoulder. The dark scent of him filled her nostrils, and it calmed her.

     
"Why can't you fix her?" Jake looked at each of them in turn, from Seth, Akia, Jean, to Vivian.

     
Again, Vivian flinched at the word "fix". "You can't fix her. She's gone Jake."

     
"But you have powers.... Why can't you bring her back?"

     
She shook her head. "No one can bring back the dead."

     
At this, Jean stood up walking around Jake, then disappearing down the hall.

     
Akia took to kneeling to the floor close to Vivian. "Is there anything I am able to do?"

     
"Yes, actually there is," she looked up into her face. "Will you take care of the Underground for the time being so we can go to the funeral?"

     
"Of course."

     
She stood with the help of Seth, and went to find Jean in her room curled up on her bed. Vivian sat on the edge laying a hand she hoped was comforting on her shoulder.

     
Jean looked up shaking her head. "I knew something bad was going to happen."

     
"I thought that was Akia's job."

     
Jean didn't laugh. "I knew if we never made up with them that something terrible was going to happen."

     
"Jean...." Vivian opened her mouth in shock, and took a seat at the edge of the bed. "Aunt Karen didn't die because we never made up with the family. She died in a car accident, just like Aunt June."

     
"Don't you think that's a bit weird? They both died in car accidents, not that far apart?"

     
Vivian never thought of that before, but shrugged it off. "I don't know, but I do know we need to pack. We're going to the funeral."

     
"We? You're going too?"

     
"Yes, I'm going too."

     
Jean threw her arms around Vivian's shoulders. "Thank you," she whispered.

     
"Don't worry about it. Just pack," Vivian left the room closing the door behind her softly. She knew how much it meant to Jean that they attended the funeral. She didn't understand why they should go when their family could not care less about them, but it meant a lot to her sister, and she would at least make her happy, or as happy as she could be in this situation.

     
A leather torn suitcase laid open on Vivian's bed the next morning. She threw the few clothes she owned in it unfolded and wrinkled.

     
"Great packing skills."

     
Vivian turned around and saw Seth standing at the doorway. There was not a trace of a smile on his face despite the joke he just made. Instead it was concerned, but she ignored it.

     
"Yeah, I'm thinking of trying out for the Olympics," Vivian said dryly.

     
"Who's going with you?"

     
"My sister," she threw worn jeans on top of the pile.

     
"That's all? Your aunt just died Vivian, I would think you would need more support than that."

     
Vivian reeled around on her heel. She could feel her cheeks going up in flames. "I don't need anyone else. It's not like for the past six years they've acted like a family."

     
Seth's concerned expression did not change. "I was thinking I could go with you."

     
"No."

     
"Why can't you accept help?" His voice raised.

     
"It's not about that. I can handle this on my own."

     
He stepped closely to her, she could feel his breath on her face. "Stop it," he said quietly.

     
"Stop what?"

     
"Stop pushing me away."

     
Vivian stepped back as though he had something contagious. "This is what we do in the Underground. We help humans, and that's what I was doing, helping a human, and come to find out you were bitten. So I still helped you, but you wanted to go back to that world out there," Vivian pointed at a wall indicating to the outside of the Underground. "You wanted to be human. You have a brother you need to take care of. He's human, and he doesn't belong here. He needs to grow up normal. He can't do that here. Why do you keep bringing this up? We have been through this."

     
Seth went over to her bag picking up a blouse and folding it neatly. "Just thought maybe things changed."

     
"We're too different," she snatched her blouse out of his hands unfolding it and putting it back in the suitcase.

     
Shuffling around her clothes pretending to check that she had everything, she heard him retreat back outside the door.

     
It was much later on when Vivian and Jean said their goodbyes, thanking Akia again for taking over. Vivian was sure that the sun was already starting to sink low in the sky, though there were no windows in the circular room.

She went to make her way to the door when she spotted Seth, and went back to hug him quickly without making eye contact. He opened his mouth as to call her back, but she quickly pushed her sister out the door and followed.

     
Across the field Vivian pitched the keys to Jean.

     
"What are these?"

     
"They're keys, you use them to drive," Vivian said sarcastically.

     
"I knew that! Why are you handing them to me?"

     
"I don't feel like driving," and she ended the conversation at that while they threw their bags in the backseat. They didn't bother talking on the way out of town. Vivian kept her eyes on the blur of trees and houses, the wind howling in her ear. On some occasions she heard mumblings from Jean that she was cold, but Vivian did not pay any attention. For right now she loved the cold. It numbed her senses, though not her mind. No, her mind was reeling ever so fast with images of Seth, Jean, Astrid, Aunt June, Aunt Karen, and Joan.

     
When they reached the hotel, they went to drag out their suitcases from the backseat of the jeep.

     
"WHAT THE ---!?" Jean jumped. Her hand to her chest.

     
"What?" Vivian peered onto the floor, all curled up there seemed to be some sort of lump of blankets. They stirred slightly when Jean yelled, but did not move anymore.

     
"What do you think it is?" Jean leaned forward cautiously.

     
Vivian put her palm out in front of her blowing the blankets off of a tiny boy with blond hair. "Jake," she said to Jean.

     
"What's he doing here?"

     
Vivian shrugged, and opened the door kneeling down on the floorboard. "Jake, Jake wake up," she shook his shoulder gently.

     
"Hmmm?" Jake opened his eyes slowly rubbing them with the heel of his palms, and looked clearly at Vivian. "Oh, hi Vivian."

     
"Jake, what are you doing here?"

     
"You have a room you know."

     
Vivian shot a dirty look at Jean, and turned again to Jake. "What are you doing here," she repeated.

     
He yawned tiredly before speaking. "Seth told me to keep an eye on you."

     
"Okay, that's it! I don't care if we miss the funeral - the rascal is going back." Jean went to get back into the drivers seat when Vivian raised her palm once more and the door shut before she could reach it.

     
"He stays Jean. We're not going to drive him all the way back."

     
"Fine," she snapped.

     
"C'mon, we're sneaking you in." Vivian picked Jake up in her arms slamming the door with her foot.

     
She was very careful to not drop him while Jean opened the hotel room window for her to crawl through. Before she had even laid him down on one of the beds, he was fast asleep, his eyes closed and fluttering with dreams, his breath deep and even.

     
“You want me to mail Seth?” Jean whispered beside her.

     
“No, let him sleep,” she pulled down a blanket from the back of a recliner and covered the small boy up to his chin.

     
“So much has changed,” Jean said as though she had lost some kind of battle.

     
“What?” Vivian looked over to see her sister sitting on the edge of the bed next to Jake.

     
“We were not to get close to humans, we were not to bring anyone that had family into the Underground. We’re changing them even, which is strictly forbidden. Feels like we failed Maeve….”