Seclusion (30 page)

“I can use my object
ability and find out what happened here if you are ready to hear it.”

“You think that will work?”

“I know it will. I’ve been
sensing stuff while you were reading,” Jay said, brushing his hands against as
many items in the room as possible.

“Okay. I’m as ready as I’ll
ever be.”

I watched as Jay walked out
of the house and back in, and then walked through the entire house just
touching items as if in a hypnotic trance. If I hadn’t known him, I would have
been freaked out.

“After your mother wrote in
her journal, she went to see Taylor. I don’t know what happened between them,
but when she returned she was frantic. She spoke with your father about leaving
and about needing to use plan B. Your father told her to go with you, but she
refused until he forced her with his compulsion. She left with you. Zach, as
your father called him, entered in a rage, asking where you and your mother
were. Your father refused to tell him. They got into a fight. Zach had crazy
strength and super speed, but your dad had telepathic power. Zach was somehow
shielded from the compulsion, and your father could only block his blows with
his mind for so long. He was getting tired, and Zach got a lucky swing in. I
only assume he was concussed after that. His mind abilities were faltering.
Zach had his hands around your father’s neck. That’s when your mother returned.
The compulsion had faded, and she wanted to help your father.

“Zach saw the look on her
face while he strangled your father to death. Your mother could manipulate fire
with her powers, and she threw a flame at him. He was caught off guard for a
moment and responded with rage, slamming her against that wall. She collapsed
immediately. Zach ran to her side and cradled her head. He was crying. As your
mother took her last breath, she reached up to kiss him, and he hung his head,
returning her kiss. She sucked in his life and they both died. Later, their
bodies were removed, but I can’t see by who or if they are still on this
island.”

“What about the graveyard?”
I asked in shock.

Jay started jogging toward
the headstones we had seen earlier. I found myself standing over four graves.
The names Janell Miller, Maddison Catalano, Michael Catalano, and Zachary Drake
were written on four headstones. I shook my head, trying to focus on what I
saw. Jay had been right. They were dead, and they were here.

“I don’t understand why
Janell’s grave is here when she was last seen in New Mexico,” Jay said, shaking
his head.

“Someone must have buried
her here. We need to find out how she died for Rae,” I said. “I think we have
enough information to return to the school now.”

“We can return later if we
need to. Let’s go,” Jay said, sprinting toward the yacht.

I followed, tucking the
journal into my backpack. “What’s wrong now, Jay?” I asked.

“Raegan should’ve called by
now,” he said as he put his phone to his ear. “Dang, no service.”

“Maybe on the boat?”

I woke up to find that E.
was already gone.
Hope she figures something out today
. I got up, threw
on some jogging clothes, and swallowed down a cup of Gatorade before heading
out to meet Chase.

I flipped through my phone.
There was nothing from Jay, but I had a text from Chase.

--Rae,

 Late night, so sorry to
bail on you, soo tired. Lunch is on me.

-Chase
 

That sucks
, I thought. I decided to
text Jay before my run.

--Jay

Friend, where are you? How
are you? You’re missed here, a lonely run for me this morning.

–Sunny

I threw my phone and purse
into the locker near the track. My usual run seemed longer and harder without
Jay’s laughter. It was so early, no one was even around. I saw someone in a
hoodie sprinting in my direction. Whoever it was probably wanted a running
partner. Too bad they didn’t make it out here earlier. The runner finally
caught up with me as I was halfway done with the lap.

“Raegan, stop.”

I immediately stopped. The
voice sent shivers of terror down my spine.

“Don’t scream. Stay calm
and don’t speak. Don’t run from me. I heard you have a new trick. Don’t want
you trying anything on me.”

Carson
! I never should have
healed him. He was supposed to be expelled, so what was he doing here? He put a
blindfold over my eyes and started spinning me like we were playing pin the
tail on the donkey.

“I want you to forget where
I found you and forget where we go from here.”

The next thing I knew, I
was in a medical room surrounded by gurneys and tubes and IV bags.

“You will not use
compulsion on me,” Carson said from the chair next to me.

“What do you want?” I
asked. I started panicking and screaming in my head, even though my demeanor
remained calm because of Carson’s compulsion.

I tried to memorize the
room. I saw a hospital bed, and what appeared to be a woman. Her red hair
flowed over a pillow. She was covered by a sheet, so I couldn’t see her face.
It looked like she was about to have an autopsy, but there were two IVs
connected to her.

“HELP,” I said.

Carson
laughed. “You want help
from her? She’s in a coma.”

“DAMENNNNN!!!”
I screamed at the hole in
my mind and heart. The previous night had been the closest I’d felt to him in a
very long time. I had thought it was just from our phone call, but now I knew I
had to try to reach him with all my strength.

“Well, I think I should at
least get a kiss before I have to give you away,” Carson said before leaning
over and smashing his tongue into my mouth.

I realized he had only said
no screaming, no compulsion, and no running, so I slapped him in the face as
hard as I could.
I wish I had that fire ability right now
.

“F*CK! NO HITTING ME
EITHER!” Carson yelled.

I should have saved that
one for an escape. He was furious.

His phone vibrated. “Hello?”
he said.

“Help! Help! Help!”
I repeated over and over
as loudly as I could without disobeying his compulsion.

He chuckled. “Okay, I’ll
take care of her.”

He was going to kill me!
“DAMEEEENNNNN!!!”
I screamed in my head, pulling at the hole. At one point, I had tried to heal
the hole with my healing power, but it didn’t work.

Carson
stood up and looked at me,
and then slapped me as hard as he could across my face. Pain shot through my
head and I blacked out.

I woke to darkness. My
first thought was,
Oh, it’s just my cave. I’m sleeping
. But I imagined
the beach, and nothing happened. I was able to picture the beach, but I wasn’t
transported there. I was stuck.
Well
, I thought,
it will go away.
I’ll stay calm and try to fall back to sleep
. I breathed and thought of the
ocean waves crashing. Then I counted to ten, but nothing happened. I was still
in the abyss, and panic began to fill me.

Where was I? The last thing
I remembered was Carson, and pain in my head. Was I blacked out?
I don’t
remember ever being conscious during a fainting spell before. Stay calm,
Raegan. Stay calm
. I went through the steps I usually took to get out of
the cave. Again, nothing changed. I looked down at my feet and saw nothing. I
don’t think I even moved. I tried to grab my arms and felt nothing. I was
unable to use any senses at all. Was this real? I couldn’t tell how long I had
been in this blackness.
Probably just a few seconds
, I thought.

I began to cry. At least I
thought I was crying. There was someone who could help me, but he wasn’t there.
In the back of my mind, and in my heart, I remembered who that someone was.
Damen!
How could I forget him? Tall, dark, and gorgeous, sweet and sometimes nerdy…he
was my love. So smart and thoughtful
, I thought as I pictured his eyes. If
I had forgotten him, I knew I must have really lost it.

Damen! Damen! Damen! Damen!
Help! Anyone! Help!
I
screamed as loud as I could, but I couldn’t get out of my brain. How long had
it been? Hours, days, weeks? My memory went fuzzy and I forgot what was going
on. I began counting in my head. When I got to 1,000, I figured it was probably
between ten and sixteen minutes. That’s when I realized I didn’t want to know how
long it’d been.

Raegan
, I told myself,
stay
calm and remember those you love
.
Damen, of course, and Janice, my
sweet, sweet aunt, and funny Uncle Jeremy, and Elsie, my best friend, and Jay,
my brother from another mother, oh he’d like that one
. I laughed.
There’s
Chase, and Connor, and
Sara. My mother.

AAAAAAAAAA!! I screamed to
myself, crying again in my mind. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could hold on
to my sanity. There was no moving, no feeling, no smelling. I began to forget
what it even felt like to do those things. Where was I? Who was I? Were these
my memories or someone else’s? I desperately tried to feel my body again, but
there was only blackness.

What did I remember?
My
name is Raegan, I think. I go to school and I have friends.
That was all I
could pull together through the mania of my continuous screams. But there was
someone I didn’t want to forget, someone I couldn’t forget.

When I focused, there was
one feeling. I had one feeling to base my reality on, and that was an empty
hole in my heart. I did feel the sadness and the ache; it was real, the only
thing real. But who or what was the ache for? I couldn’t remember.
Maybe for
being stuck wherever I am.

Words began feeling
useless. They were just odd sounds in my head that felt useless and empty, even
meaningless. Then something happened. A twinge of feeling poked at the empty
hole. It felt like a loving caress.
Loving caress
, I thought.
What is
that?
I got scared.
If the emptiness goes away, there will be nothing.
Nothing to feel, nothing to keep me sane.

I felt the twinge again,
and this time, it was like a healing pressure, like the hole was mending and
getting stronger. I could feel…pain.
Pain!
I’d forgotten about pain!
YES, YES, that’s what it felt like! The emptiness was leaving, but I could now
feel pain…stinging, throbbing, heart-wrenching pain. Then it was gone. I felt a
flash of worry and concern. I sensed a very strong and powerful feeling, but I
couldn’t remember what it was called. It’d been so long since I’d felt so many
things.

The hole was barely there
by this time, and the onslaught of emotions and feelings that were coming back
were confusing and upsetting. I knew that I’d be okay, but I feared losing the
emptiness, like I’d forget it if it was gone. I focused on the strongest
feeling.
What is it? A decision?
I knew I wasn’t crazy. This emotion or
decision filling my heart, and the emptiness, proved there was more than
blackness out there. I imagined that tears would be falling from my eyes if I
had a face.

Then it happened. The hole
was gone, and I screamed out because the emptiness was gone…I wanted to die
because I’d forgotten the thing I wanted to remember the most…but wait… I could
see someone.
This was different
, I thought.
Different? Is that the
right word?

*
* *

DAMEN

Jay and I got to the boat.
I used my powers to untie all the tethers at once. Jay climbed up to the
tallest point on the yacht in search of a signal. I put the boat into gear. I
was wondering if I should call in a helicopter. Jay was acting insane. I could
see him flipping through messages on his phone. I violated his privacy – I had
to. Raegan had texted him at around 8 a.m., but it was now about 1 p.m. and he hadn’t received a phone call yet. Her text had said that she missed him and
was lonely. The feelings he had for her killed me; they were deeper than I had
feared. He tried calling her again but went straight to voicemail.

I could hear him in my
mind: “Sunshine, it’s me. Call me! I’m worried.”

Crap
, I thought. Jay then tried
to reach Chase.

I was steering us toward
the mainland as quickly as I could manage when I felt something flicker through
the hole. Was it possible? We were farther apart than we’d ever been… But then
I remembered what had happened the night before. Our powers were growing. Were
we reconnecting?

I felt something again, but
this time it was panic – extreme panic.

“JAY!”

“No one’s seen her since
this morning. Chase had expected to hear from her at lunch, but she never
returned his messages. He’s searching for her now.”

“Something’s definitely
wrong!” I said. “Our link is reconnecting on its own, but slowly. Too slowly.
Take the wheel. I’m getting extreme panic now!”

Jay’s hand connected with
the steering wheel at the same moment my foot kicked through one of the
cabinets near me. Our inability to protect Raegan was crippling us both.
Neither of us said anything. That’s when I felt it: sharp, stabbing pain. She’d
been hit across the face. I didn’t need the old link to tell me she was hurt; I
just knew it. The slew of cuss words coming out of my mouth had Jay speeding up
and smacking the steering wheel.

“Someone just hit her
across the head,” I said shakily.

“You son of a bitch, I told
you not to leave her!” Jay said, aiming a fist at my face.

I just let it connect; it’s
what I deserved. I relished the pain. It distracted me for a minute.

“I need you to get me back
to the school. I’m going to try to channel our power to reconnect quicker. I
have to reach her. We are too far away. I will need all my focus and power,” I
said.

“Okay, whatever you need to
reach her.”

I went to the bunk. I could
tell Jay was ordering Chase and Connor around.
Good
, I thought. As I lay
down on the small bed, I focused all my strength on reaching Raegan. It wasn’t
enough. I felt nothing. I pushed my power into the emptiness, and I could feel
a fluttering of thought. I pushed more and more power into the emptiness, and I
could feel spasms across my temples. But our link was still not connecting
quickly enough. I pushed even harder and felt something dripping from my nose.
It worked!          

I could hear the soft
sounds on the other side…it sounded like crying or sniveling. It killed me. I
pushed all the remaining power I had into healing our link, and also used some
of Raegan’s. The pain in my head was excruciating, but I couldn’t burden Raegan
with it, so I locked it away. I’m not sure how long I’d been pushing power into
the emptiness before Jay helped me walk from the boat to the car so we could
get to the plane as swiftly as possible.

“How’s it going?” he asked.

“It’s working, but not as
quickly as I’d like.”

Jay grunted in response.

My face felt wet. I tried
to wipe the moisture away, along with the blood that was streaming from my
nose.

Jay and I were on the plane
when I felt a release in my healing power. I knew a connection had formed. My
pain abated some, but still throbbed. Raegan and I were still too far away to
sustain the connection without drawing on my powers. I looked for her and saw
nothing. Was she dead? My soul screamed.

“RAEGAN!”

*
* *

“Raegan! Are you there? I
can’t hear you! I’m here, I’m here. I promise I won’t leave you again, and I’m
gonna find you. Do you know where you are?”

The voice in my head scared
me, and I started crying harder. I tried to reach out and speak back, but it
had been so long. I wasn’t sure what the words meant anymore.

“Who?” is what I said, even
though I wasn’t sure if that was what I meant.

“Who? Little one, what do
you mean, who? Where are you? It’s me! What did they do to you?”

I could hear the emotion in
the words he used. I focused on what they meant.
“Raegan, talk to me please.
Tell me you’re okay.”

“You…scared?... Who?”

“Little one, what is going
on? It’s me, Damen. I’m going to find you. Hold on, and yes, I’m scared.”

“Help me?... Damen?”
I said.

“I will, and yes, it’s me.”

I heard the words but could
not understand them.

“Show me.”

“Show you what, baby?”

“Who?”
was all I could get out.

“Okay, I’ll show you, Rae.”

All of a sudden I saw a
flash in my head. I inhaled quickly. I saw him. Dark hair, emerald eyes, strong
jaw, slightly tan and so handsome.

“Love,”
I responded.

“I am going to kill
someone.”

“Love?”
I asked.

“Yes, love.”

Damen showed me pictures of
the library and our first touch, and of the shock that went through both of us
when our powers connected for the first time. I saw the meadow, and the
laughing, and the secret stares, and the frustration. The healing and the
cuddling. I saw our first dream on the beach. I saw him taking care of me,
laying me down on the bed and pulling the blankets over me. I saw him gently
removing every bobby pin. I also felt the anger he had toward other boys who
looked at me.

“Damen…am happy.”

“My love, you are killing
me. What is wrong? Where are you? Are you in pain? I can’t feel pain. I can’t
feel anything.”

“Damen…in cave.”

“Your dream cave? Crap! It
wasn’t a memory, it was a prediction.”

I focused on the word love.
It was important I thought.

“LOVE, love, love,”
I said repeatedly, testing
the sound.

Damen sent me a flash of us
kissing. It made me feel happy.

“Happy.”

“Yes, we’re happy. You make
me happy.”

He sent me another flash –
this time an image of me lying in his lap while I practiced sending things
flying through the air with my powers.

“I remember.”

“You do, love?”
he asked.

“Yes, show me more,
please…”

“Baby, what do you want me
to show you? I’ll show you anything... everything, just keep talking.”

“Show me a kiss.”

He sent me a smile.

“That was a smile. You make
me smile. This is a kiss.”

I could feel the kiss
through him, and the caresses.

“More…”

I heard Damen laugh.
“That’s
my Raegan.”

He showed me flashes of us
against a wall, his hands under my thighs. He showed me his apartment. We were
lying on the couch together as he ran his hands over my body.

“Love?”

“No, that’s not love. That
is lust, my love.
This is love.”

He showed me how upset he
was when I healed him and ended up hurting myself. He showed me how he paced in
his room as the Phantom. I saw the orchid flying across the room to me. He showed
me the longing and hurt he felt on our mission with Caleb, and the worry he
felt when Jay told him about the premonition. I saw his decision to leave to
keep me safe, and how it tore him apart. I saw the murder in his eyes when he
knew what Carson was doing. He sent me the emotions of fury when he felt the
first signs of panic and pain through the link.

“That is love? You love me?
I’m scared.”

“YES! I love you! I will
always love you. It’s always been you, Raegan, little sun Rae. I will show you
why I love you.”

I saw myself studying,
smiling, making Damen angry by postponing the break-up with Chase so that I
wouldn’t hurt him. I saw myself strutting around Damen’s apartment, and taking
food to him. He showed me my excitement when I found out he’d read
Twilight
.
He showed me my compassion for Elsie, even when I was hurt and angry.

“I could go on forever
replaying each moment with you.”

“Jay… I love Jay, too?”

*
* *

DAMEN

“Jay…I love Jay, too?”
she whispered through the
link.

I hated Jay at that moment.
I would’ve given anything to be able to lie to her right then. Behind the
locked wall was the physical pain I’d been hiding from her. Now, I had
emotional pain to hide there, too. Her question confirmed all my fears.

“Yes, you love Jay, too.”

I showed her how I had
imagined them running every morning, their connection obvious through their
laughter. I showed her all the pictures from ice blocking. Then she showed me
pictures from her memory. The two of them together on the couch with his arm wrapped
around her. Jay kissing her on her forehead and dancing like a loon at the Pizza Palace to make her laugh. The way he protected her…

“Jay, love.”

“Yes.”

I thought my head had hurt,
but this was ten times worse. The torture of watching their love story, and the
fact that she compared it to ours, was pure hell. I knew she didn’t understand,
and that was okay.

“I remember Damen, Jay, and
Carson. Carson is bad, right?”
she asked.

The more pictures I showed
her, the more she remembered and the better she could communicate in response.

“Yes, Carson is bad,”
I said.

“He hurt me again.”

“What! When?”

“He slapped my face.”

She sent me a picture of
the memory.

“Do you remember when this
happened, Raegan?”

“Before I woke up in this
cave. After my run. He blindfolded me and made me forget where I am.”

“Crap. Okay, love. Do you
think you will be okay for a few seconds while I talk to Jay? You can listen.”

“Okay… I forgot about
listening.”

Now if I can just keep the
irritation out of my voice long enough to talk to him
, I thought.

We were still on the
airplane, and Jay was staring out the window.

“Jay,” I said. “Carson kidnapped her.”

Jay whipped his head around
quickly, and I could tell Raegan was excited to see him through my eyes.

“She’s talking?”

“Yes.”

Raegan overloaded my brain
with pictures of the two of them together.

“Raegan, stop please. It’s
too much,”
I thought.

She stopped immediately,
and I felt that her feelings had been hurt.

“It’s not you. You are
fine,”
I
said to her. “
Do you want me to tell Jay something?”

“What’s she saying?” Jay
asked.

“Tell him I miss him and I
love him. And tell him I’ll finish my end of our bargain when you find me.
Thank you, Damen.”

Her innocence was killing
me. I groaned.

“She wants me to tell you
that she misses you and loves you and she’ll finish her end of the bargain when
we find her.”

“Back at ya, sunshine!” Jay
said, beaming.

Hearing his nickname for
her felt like a knife being plunged into my already broken heart. I wanted to
slam his head into the wall. But my love for Raegan made her happiness more
important to me than my own.

“Jay, can you call the
group and tell them who took her and approximately when she was taken? Maybe
they’ll find something at the track. Find out if Elsie has figured anything out
with Dr. Ezekiel. We need to talk about telling him everything, and Taylor, too.”

As we came closer to
landing, my pain began to lessen. I inhaled deeply.