Insight (32 page)

She’s running
. The picture disappears. This is killing me. I already
know
she’s running.

I take off into a jog, keeping Landon’s hand in mine. He keeps up easily, and I concentrate on Mom again. She’s disappeared behind the emergency vehicles. She’s almost there. I concentrate again.

Relief, she takes his hand.

I almost collapse in the wave of gratitude that fills me.

“Ethan might be okay.”

“Let’s find out.” His voice is so calm, so reassuring. It’s him—I’m warm again, without realizing it. We run around the first of the emergency cars looking for Mom.

She’s leaning over a stretcher, holding Ethan’s hand. She’s not sobbing, and his hand is moving. He’s alive and being wheeled to the ambulance.

I let go of Landon’s hand and run toward her, needing to see for myself that he’ll be okay.

Mom turns as I approach. She sets his hand down and grabs me tightly in a hug. All I see is now and feel her relief. “He’ll be okay.”

Four people lift the stretcher into the ambulance.

“Are you coming?” One of the EMT’s looks at Mom.

She drops her arms, staring at me.

“Go.” I nod. “We’ll meet you there.”

“Micah, they said if the car was any smaller he’d have been killed. He’s going to be okay, and you saved me. I love you.” She climbs into the ambulance. The doors close, and they drive away. That’s it. It’s over.

I spin around to find Landon.

When I turn, I see a face, watching me from behind a large, red truck. Not a normal face, a shadow. It blinks twice and as the exhaust moves, the face floats away, or disappears, but I can’t take my eyes from the spot where it rested.

Landon’s voice comes from right behind me. “You did it.”

I jump. My heart’s frantic, again.

“You okay?” His hands rub up and down my arms. All I see is now.

I close my eyes and let his warmth wash through me. It can’t be real, can it? Faces and people don’t appear out of shadows,
the woods. “Did you see what I saw
when we ran up the hill today?” I open my eyes to watch his face closely.

“I…” he shakes his head. “I don’t know.”

“Like.” If I say it out loud, will it be real? “Shadows?”

“So now this
is
the Blair Witch Project.” He smirks.

“Can you be serious?” But it feels good to hear him trying to tease all the same.

His face falls.
“I don’t know, Micah. But since we talked about the shadows the first time, I’ve done more research.”

“Research?”

“I’ll tell you in the car, okay?” His hands squeeze my shoulders. “But I feel safe. Here. With you.”

I open my mouth to tell him about the face, non-descript in the shadow behind a truck. Could have been anything, right? Or nothing? “Me, too.”

Landon’s arm slides around my waist
, le
ading me
back to the van.

The line of cars just starting to move pushes the accident to the forefront again. “I caused it Landon. This mess. Ethan’s accident.” I feel horrible. I’m responsible.

“I don’t believe that, not for a minute.” He drops his arm from my shoulder, breaking contact and then wraps his arms around me.

Barefoot on a deck of a sailboat. His arms around me. His mouth on my neck. Pure joy. Cold breeze.

“Hmm.” I review the picture again. I’m sure it’s Maine. It makes me think of Dad and his upcoming wedding.

“You okay?”

“We need to pick out your boat. I think it’s in Maine.” My cheek is on his warm chest and his arms wrap perfectly around me. Landon’s warmth has filled me back up and pushes my nightmarish morning into the past.

“
Our
boat.” He kisses my cheek. “See? There’s perks too.”

THIRTY-TWO

“So, research?” I ask as Landon speeds down the road.

“Our project for world history.” He glances over, maybe testing my reaction.

I shake my head even though it’s creeped into my thoughts more than I want to admit. “That thought already came to me, but it’s a
story
Landon. Not real.”

He snorts. “Were you running up that hill with me today? Because those shadow people were most definitely real.”

A shudder wracks my body.

“There’s more…” His voice now is hesitant.

“More?”

“We only talked about the shadows in history, but when you said you’d seen people moving in the woods, or something moving, I dug further.”

I don’t want to know. I don’t want to know.

Do I?

He sighs. “I would have told you, but it freaked me the hell out.”

“Do I want to know?”

“Well, you think it’s just a story anyway, right?”
He glances at me.

I shrug. I don’t know anything.

“The story feels real, Micah. It’s everywhere, not just in legends from the Bahamas. Those people are all over the world now. The woman who made those dolls was from a long line
of people who practiced voodoo. S
he had magic. When all those people were cast into shadow, she had to make payment and give up her abilities.”

“Magic is for Disney movies.” But my words don’t have the snark I want them to, and a whole different kind of panic eases in. One that’s mixed with disbelief.

“She found some of the children of the people that she’d pushed from this life
into shadow
and slowly gave up her power—separating it so no one person would possess all of her skills.” His hands readjust on the steering wheel over and over. “Every place I’ve checked online has said the same thing. I even made a few calls to a small museum in the Bahamas
,
as well as this guy at Oxford whose doing his dissertation on Caribbean legends.”

What were her skills?
I want to ask it, but the words won’t come.

“She had the ability to manipulate with touch, seek out other people with magical abilities and special talents, both shield and magnify the gifts of others…and…” He pulls in a breath. “Insight.”

“What’s insight?” But I already know. Goose bumps break out across my body.

“That’s you.”

It’s so incredibly insane, and yet fits everything we know. I’m not sure what to think yet, but I know it’ll take some processing. “So there are other people out there…like me?” It’s the only part of this that’s brought me any amount of hope.
Wait. Shield and magnify. “Landon! You’re one too!”

“What?” He scoffs.

“Shield and magnify!”

He sighs. “Okay, Micah. I can’t do anything.”

“No.” I sit back a bit in disbelief. “But Landon, at the prom, when I ran into people and held on to you, I didn’t see, and then with Mom, all I had to do was concentrate, and I got my vision. Don’t you see? The shadows chased us, but didn’t get me. That was
you
.” My heart’s flying. There are other people like me, and I found one. Landon.

“Micah.” He sighs. “You’re just looking too hard. Seeing things that aren’t there. I don’t… I don't do anything.”

I’m half deflated, and half wondering if I’ll prove him wrong in the end.

His eyes find mind briefly before going back to the road. “You’re stubborn. You’re still thinking it.”

“Maybe.” Definitely. And I’m going to watch him, too. What are the odds…

“It’s passed down, Micah. My dad would have said something.”

“Like mine did?” I ask.

“No.” He shakes his head. “Your gift was
probably passed down for generations from the time that the old magic voodoo woman gave that part of her magic to one of your ancestors.
Just trust me when I say I don’t have any magical talents.
”

I’ve thought this. I looked over it, and I know it explains so much. But…“
I go from feeling like you’re in this with me, to feeling like none of this can be real.
” Another chill runs through me.
“And if it is real, I still think you’re a part of it.”

“
I’m not going to argue anymore on whether I’m involved or not, because I’m not.” He gives me a weird look that tells me he thinks I’m crazy. “W
e’re headed to the Bahamas on the boat anyway, if I can convince you to come. Maybe we could learn for ourselves?” He starts to reach over for me twice but stops.

“Maybe…”
And as much as I want to share this with him, maybe I don’t. Maybe nothing we’ve learned so far is right.

But the face…and it all fits…and when I think about Landon being a shield and magnifier, it doesn’t all seem so strange…

***

We jump out of the car at the hospital, and Landon takes my hand. I get another picture of his boat and contentment. It helps slow my heart and make this day less frantic.

“Dad said something about fate and I’ve been thinking.” We’re half-running toward the front door. “Last night you and I felt like we could erase things, but I don’t think we can. I don’t think there’s
any
way to erase things that will happen.”

“Then how did it change?” He glances over his shoulder.

“I think it’s like, a sketch on a piece of paper, only not in pencil, not in something you can erase.”

“So,
like with a sharpie?” He smirks. Landon’
s ability to be relaxed in almost any situation amazes me. I wish he’d done that when talking
a
bout where my “gift” came from.

“Yeah, Landon. A sharpie.” I humor him. “I think you and I folded it, moved the paper around so the end result looks different, but it’s not different. Not really. There was still an accident.”

“Interesting.”

“I’m trying to make some kind of sense out of this.” I lean in closer to him as we walk.

“Yeah, I go from wanting to make sense of it to trying to just roll with it.” He slides his hand out in front of him.

“How’s that working for you?” I tease.

“Today?” He looks at me sideways. “Not so well.”

For the first time all day, I laugh. It feels so good.

Mom steps out through double doors as we walk up to the information desk.

“Micah, he’s fine.” She
’s slumped in exhaustion
. “He’s going in for a few X-rays now.
”

Relief. I lean my head on Landon’s shoulder as my body relaxes.

“Let me give you two a minute.” He kisses the top of my head and walks away to give us privacy. I don’t want him to go, but Mom and I need it.

“I get it,” she says as I step next to her.

“Get what?”

“Why you want to be with Landon.”

Just thinking about him warms me, fills me. “There are a million reasons why I want to be with Landon, Mom.”

“But I think the main reason is that he knows you. All about you.” She sits in a chair and motions for me to sit next to her.

“It’s huge.” No one but Dad could understand how huge it is. “Not only does he know, but he’s okay with it. He gets it, and he makes me feel like not such a big deal.” I let our legs rest together and all I see from her is now. She understands. “Dad and I talked on my last visit, but I’ve never told anyone. I saw my face when I brushed against Landon, and I knew.”

“You saw your face?” A faint smile is starting on her lips.

“He was with another girl when I got that vision. I saw my face when we touched. I would have never told him otherwise.” And I almost didn’t. I can’t imagine that now.

“That’s a wonderfully romantic story.”

“Guess it is.” Tears come to my eyes. “So is yours.”

“What?”

“I saw Ethan’s face from you. I’d always seen me. Always. It made me crazy for a while.”

“Micah.” Her hand touches my face.
It’s me
.

“I don’t like what I can do, Mom. I don’t want it. Spending months on a boat with someone I trust, someone I’m in love with, sounds like the perfect break. The
only
way to get a break.” I close my eyes, pushing tears down my cheeks.

“I think it would sound like a perfect break to most people.”

“It still doesn’t seem real, not to me. It does to Landon, though. He’s been planning for a long time.” I let my head rest on Mom’s shoulder.

“Does he know how to keep you safe out there?”

I smile at her natural concern for me. “He does.”

“So, how soon do we have to say goodbye?”

“We’ll leave for dad’s wedding and won’t come back. But you can come and visit anytime.” It suddenly feels so soon.

“On your sailboat.”

“Yeah.” Landon’s boat, but I’m not about to correct her now. Now that she understands.

“It’s expensive to fly all that way.”