That all came out in one long, drawn out breath, and I knew if I was actually going to answer her before she started talking again, I’d have to act quickly. “You may know more than I do,” I admitted. “My parents won’t tell me much.” I didn’t tell her about the strange man downstairs. Not yet, anyway. “Do you know what happened to Drew?”
“I know what everyone is saying. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me, but every single one of her friends that was with he swears it’s the truth. Except for maybe your sis because she’s not here. She’s not there, right?”
“No, she’s at my grandma’s.” That much I did believe, though I wasn’t sure why.
“Well, I guess Drew told her parents she was going to spend the night at her friend Sidney Cox’s house last night, but instead they all went out somewhere.” I was positive I knew what Lucy would say next. The Eidolon Festival. But, when the next sentence came out of her mouth, I felt more confused than ever. “I guess they drove off somewhere where you can go rock climbing, and Drew fell. They said she somehow managed to slice her neck open on a rock, and before they could get her to the hospital, she bled to death. Isn’t that just horrible? Can you imagine watching your friend bleed out like that? Poor Drew. She was always so… pretty.”
I had so many questions, I couldn’t even think about the fact that Lucy couldn’t think of any better adjectives than “pretty” to describe the dead girl. Not “nice” or “cheerful,” but “pretty.” Instead of dwelling on that, I asked, “Are you sure that’s what happened, Luce?” I didn’t even know where one went to rock climb around here, not to mention I knew for a fact that my sister had been planning to go to that Eidolon Festival the night before. Why would she change her mind?
“I don’t know,” Lucy replied. “That’s just what everyone is saying. Maybe you should call your sister and ask. All of her friends are super serious that that’s how Drew died. Even Jack. My brother saw him this morning.”
Again, I had a ton of questions. “Where? Why would Jack be out on Thanksgiving morning after his friend died?”
“I’m not sure,” Lucy admitted, “but he said he ran into him on his jog in the park.”
I literally scratched my head, thinking maybe I should call Jack. The whole time my sister was dating him, we were very close. He was like a big brother to me. He had to be very upset about what had happened to Drew.
“Daniel said that he looked like he was in shock and hadn’t gotten much sleep.”
“I can imagine,” I said. Lucy was one of my very best friends in the world, and I desperately wanted to tell her that I had some suspicions of my own, but I didn’t think telling her over the phone was a good idea. She might need to see my face to know some of this stuff wasn’t made up. And it was a holiday, after all, so neither one of us could stay on the phone too long.
“I called Em whallago, while I was waiting for you to call me back, and she didn’t know anything. Not sure she cared either.” That last part was an aside. It wasn’t that Em wouldn’t care that someone had died, but she had a tough time relating to other people and understanding emotions.
“Listen, Luce, I’m not exactly sure what’s going on, but there are a few things I wanna talk to you about. I think it would be better if we could talk in person, though.” The sound of an engine out front caught my attention, and I walked to the window as quickly as I could without shaking the floor. I expected to see Aaron leaving, but instead, another motorcycle had pulled up out front and a very large man, also dressed in black, killed the engine and swung his leg over the side. He wasn’t wearing a helmet, and all I could see from my second-story window was a mass of disheveled, curly, dark hair.
“Oh, my goodness. What is it, Cassidy?” Lucy was asking. “You can’t keep secrets like that from me.”
“I won’t for long,” I promised. “It’s probably nothing.” The words came out of my mouth as this large man began to saunter toward my front door. It was definitely something.
I was just about to tell her I had to go when I heard her mother’s voice in the background shouting that she needed to get off of the phone. Lucy made a sound like a frustrated water buffalo. “I gotta go.”
“Okay. Maybe we can get together this weekend?”
“We better, or else you’re spilling over Skype, girl.”
“Okay,” I said again. “Talk to you later.”
Lucy hung up, and I stopped staring out the window at two empty motorcycles. Frustrated, I sat down at my desk. I felt like I needed to get some of this information down on paper so I could see it and start piecing a few things together. I pulled out an old notebook I sometimes used as a journal and wrote the following:
“Cadence said she was going to the Eidolon Festival at 3:00 AM the night before Thanksgiving. Who was going with her? Drew, Jack, Sidney, Taylor, Jon, and Kash. Leaving from Drew’s house.
“Wednesday night, Cadence arrived home around 4:30. Heard a man in her room. Aaron? Footsteps on the roof. He went out her bedroom window in a flash. Sports car out front with purple-haired woman. Cadence is gone. My parents said she went to my grandma’s house to rest because Drew was hurt.
“Thursday morning, Aaron shows up at our house. Parents say Drew has died. Cadence is at my grandma’s house. Aaron used to work with my grandma—and maybe my grandpa?? Another dude is downstairs now. Tall guy, broad shoulders, unruly hair. Who is this person? Why did my mom say the word ‘Transformation’? What is up with my sister?”
I sat for a few minutes, trying to decide if I’d missed anything. Then, I remembered another snippet from the conversation downstairs and wrote, “Who is Jamie and what process does he use to do whatever he does?”
Another few moments passed by while I pondered my notes. I couldn’t think of anything else, so I slipped the notebook back into a stack of books where it was very unlikely anyone would ever find it. Just as I was about to plunk myself on the bed, I heard footsteps on the stairs and prayed it was one of my parents and not a strange man dressed in black.
There was a light rapping on my door, and I knew from the familiar sound it was my mom. “Come in,” I said, standing and taking a few steps toward the door.
Mom looked a little older now than she had just the day before. I wasn’t sure if it was due to the events of earlier that morning or the discussion she’d just had with the fellows downstairs. But she forced a smile as she entered the room and took a seat on my bed, gesturing for me to join her. “How are you, honey?”
I sat down beside her, and my mom wrapped her arm around my shoulders. “I’m okay,” I said, though my voice sounded weak. “Just confused.” I realized I’d been so preoccupied with worry over my sister that I hadn’t really given much thought to what had happened to poor Drew yet.
As if reading my mind, Mom said, “Cadence will be fine, honey. It’s just going to take her a little while to… adjust to this. Life without Drew.” She added that last sentence quickly, as if there could be something else she’d need to adjust to.
I nodded but didn’t say anything yet. There were so many questions swirling around in my head, but I didn’t feel like my parents wanted me to know as much as they did. Why else would they have sent me out of the room so they could talk to Mr. Suspicious? I didn’t understand all of the secrets. It wasn’t like my parents not to tell me what was going on.
My mom’s voice cut through my thoughts. “There is someone downstairs I’d like for you to meet.”
I looked up at her then, thinking it must be Weird Guy Number Two. “Who?” was all I could manage.
“He’s a doctor, Cassidy, and he was there last night, er, this morning when they brought Drew into the hospital. I think he can help answer some of your questions.”
My eyebrows knit together. “He’s a doctor?” My mom didn’t know I’d seen the burly man pull up on a motorcycle. Granted, I was looking down at him from two stories above, but he didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever seen before.
She nodded. “Yes. Why don’t you come downstairs and have a little chat with him? He’s really nice. I think you’ll like him. His name is Dr. Elliott Sanderson.”
I was a little relieved to hear that my dad was talking to Aaron outside when I came down the stairs with my mother. There was just something about the intensity of his eyes that made me uncomfortable. I couldn’t hear what they were saying, but their voices seemed lighter than they had a few minutes ago when the stranger had first arrived.My mom led me into the living room, and I followed as if I’d never been to this particular part of our home before, each step feeling a bit like a death sentence. Dr. Sanderson unfolded himself from my mother’s recliner as we approached, and I had a hard time taking in how someone so large could occupy the same space as my dainty mother.“Cassidy, honey, this is Dr. Sanderson.”He extended his large hand to me, and I let it envelop mine. There was something hauntingly familiar about his green eyes. It was like I’d seen them before, frequently, and while I was certain I would remember meeting
Thanksgiving dinner was delicious, even though it was so odd to me that my sister wasn’t there. I really wished she could’ve been, but I understood that Cadence needed to rest. I wanted to know more about her new job, but I also realized there was no reason to ask about it. Everything was just fine.After I helped my mom clear the table and put the dishes in the dishwasher, I decided to head upstairs. I doubted Lucy or Em would have called since I’d already talked to one and the other would be busy trying to avoid her family. Emma really hated crowds of any kind, even if they were related to her, and I was pretty sure the meal this year was supposed to be at her house. I did think maybe Milo or Wes would’ve called, though. They both lived just down the street from Jack Cook, and it was possible they might’ve seen him. They might want to know what was going on, and I’d be happy to explain to them that it was an accident and nothing to worry
A knock at the door interrupted what would’ve been a pretty good buck-toothed rabbit face my dad was constructing on a short stack. “I’ll get it,” my mom said, pulling herself away from blueberry eyes. I could tell by the way she looked at my dad that she was reluctant to see who had come calling. They exchanged nervous glances.Something twisted inside of me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on it. Have you ever had something really terrible going on in your life, and for a few moments you lose track of it, like it’s not consciously on your mind, but then it starts to creep in, and before it even registers in your brain, your stomach starts to hurt, like a sharp knife has been plummeted in from the side, a sneak attack? It was like that. I looked at my dad and he offered a small smile before he, too, pushed back his chair. “Go ahead and eat, Cass. We’ll be back in a few minutes.”I nodded, and he exited the dinin
My parents seemed to buy my routine. My mom looked at my dad and gave him that reassuring smile she makes when she’s certain her children are the most precious creatures in the world. My dad did his complimentary, “I concur,” smile.I took another, much smaller, bite of my pancakes and chewed it slowly. After trying to eat nearly a quarter of them in one bite, they were less appealing than they had been when my dad and I had initially made them.My mom cleared her throat the way she does when something important needs to be said, but she is not sure if she should say it or if my dad should. They were looking at each other making small shrugging motions. Finally, my mom said, “Cassidy, you should probably know that your sister has decided not to go back to school right now.”My fork clattered out of my hand onto my plate. “What?” I asked. I had heard some unusual things recently, I guess—maybe they weren’t tha
I’m not sure what they were talking about when I came back into the room, but their voices got all hushed. I did hear a few words, which didn’t make sense to me. I hurried upstairs to make sure it was okay with Luce if I came over for a while, wondering who Aaron had said probably went “back to Europe.”Upstairs, I sent Lucy a text. “Can I come over in a few?”She answered almost immediately. “Sure! Just about to text. And Em, too.”“Cool. My dad’s driving me, so, maybe ten minutes?”“Whenever. My mom’s shopping and my dad’s at the golf course.”For some reason, I was glad her parents wouldn’t be there. It seemed like there was something important I needed to tell her, though I didn’t know what it was. “What about Daniel?”“Are you kidding? It’s not even 10:00 yet. He’ll be asleep for another hour or two.”
“Hi, Lucy,” I said with a friendly smile. She narrowed one eye at me. “What’s up?”“Cassidy Elizabeth Findley, get in here.” She stepped out of the way and I entered into a foyer with floors made of marble and a grand staircase with ornate moldings cascaded from the second story behind my diminutive friend.Emma came bounding in from the adjoining living room, straightening her glasses. Her short brown hair was a little frizzy, and I thought about asking her if she remembered to use her conditioning spray this morning. Lucy and I have been trying to get her to understand different products we use, not because we care so much what she looks like but because we feel it is our duty as her friend to explain the purposes behind the things that we do that Emma doesn’t get or doesn’t care about. I pushed the thoughts aside and said, “Hi, Em.”Without looking at my face, she said, “Hi.”
Lucy cocked her head to the side, and Emma said, “Hmmm.” Then they looked at each other.“Seriously. Like, I found it, and I don’t know when I wrote it.” I was beginning to panic a little on the inside. What if I started to forget other things, too, like my friends or the days of the week?“Well,” Emma said, straightening her glasses as she got up and moved back to her chair, “I guess that means you don’t remember any of those things actually happening either?”It was a good question, and the short answer was no, I didn’t. But then, I’d just discovered this page before I’d come over, and I hadn’t really thought about trying to remember.“This is so bizarre,” Lucy said. “What would make you write something down and then forget it? Were you sleeping when you wrote it?”“I don’t know. I don’t remember writing it.”
My mom came to pick me up a few hours later. By then, I had gotten over the initial shock of realizing my parents had allowed some strange man to come into my house and brainwash me into thinking the death of my sister’s friend was no big deal, but I was still miffed. And confused. Why in the world would my parents want me to think that Drew’s death was just a blip in my existence and not something to worry about?Something very strange was going on, and I had no idea who I could talk to about it. If my parents were part of the conspiracy, then I couldn’t trust them. My grandmother also allegedly knew these people, though I wasn’t sure I could trust that either. As hard as it was, I decided to wait it out. My sister was supposed to return the next day. Maybe when she came home, she’d spew out some acceptable explanation for all of this weirdness and life would go back to normal.I wasn’t holding my breath.Saturday night, I tr