Aftermath (2 page)

I turned back to Hayden
to signal help with my eyes but he was already gone. “Maybe, dad.
But I gotta go. Love ya, bye.”

Um, love you…”

I hung up the phone
before he could ask any more questions. What was I going to do?
“Hayden?” I yelled as I ran into the hallway.

“Down here.”

I flew down the steps
to find him at the computer. “What are you doing? How could you
leave me like that? I am totally dead!” I paced in front of him,
knowing there was no possible way to get out of this one.

“No you’re not.”
He didn’t find my expression funny. “I am finding you a new one.”

“Oh, I know! I could
stage a carjacking!”

“You wouldn’t lie,
Ana.”

“I kinda already
did…”

“Besides, I am taking
care of it.”

I was too caught up in
coming up with lame excuses to give my father that I didn’t hear
Luke come home.

“Seriously, what am I
going to do?”

“What? Can’t figure
out which outfit to wear?” My head whipped toward Luke who was
lying on the couch drinking a can of soda.

“I’m not in the
mood Luke.” I pinned him to the couch with my eyes.

“Whoa, sorry.” He
stood up and walked over to look at Hayden’s computer. “What’s
going on?”

“Oh, Ana is just
being overdramatic because her father wants his truck back.”

“Overdramatic? How am
I being overdramatic? It’s not like he's asking for a book back,
it’s his truck. It’s probably a $10,000 truck, for which I have
no idea where to start looking. Even if I do find it, it probably
won’t even start!”

“Ana, don’t worry.
I said I am finding you a new one.”

“What do you mean ‘a
new one?'”

“There are thousands
of trucks for sale that look just like yours. We just have to find
one with similar mileage that’s mechanically sound - so one
not
in New Orleans.”

“So, you're going to
go and buy me a truck, just so I can give it to my dad so he can sell
it?” I was incredulous.

“Yes?” He looked at
me like it was a completely feasible option.

“That is a good chunk
of change that I don’t want you spending on me. I am already living
with you. You have done enough for me.”

“For the last time,
you don’t need to worry about the money. And I think it is only
appropriate since it is our fault that your car is gone in the first
place.” His voice faded but he failed at distracting me.

“You’re right! I
would still have the truck if you hadn’t kidnapped me!”

“You might not be
alive if we hadn’t kidnapped you so I guess we’re even,” Luke
butted in.

“Fine.” I felt a
little better about the situation. And it could work, it could
actually work.

“It looks exactly
like it,” Luke said to Hayden as they looked at the computer
screen.

“It’s in Texas.”

“Yes, but it looks
just like it. It has the same ram bars and everything”

“Oh, no.” The blood
drained from my face as I slumped into a chair by the computer.

“What’s wrong?”
Hayden beat Luke to asking.

“This means you’re
leaving doesn’t it?” I remembered my dream all at once.

Hayden remembered too.
I just wasn’t sure what part of my dream made his eyebrows furrow
in hurt. “No, I am sure Luke can go pick it up.”

“I can?”

Hayden let out a
tormented breath. He knew he would be wasting his time if he tried to
convince Luke to go instead of going himself. I wondered if he knew
that because he believed in my ability to predict the future, having
already seen him leaving in my dream last night, or more appallingly
because he knew this was the opportunity Luke had been waiting for.
“I will go on the next hunt alone if you will do this for me.”

“No way. I have
school,
remember
brother?”

Hayden shook his head.
I had almost forgotten that tomorrow was the first day I would be
going back to Ecole Classique High School, the private academy I
attended, since Hurricane Katrina. Hayden and Luke enrolled as
students before Katrina hit and would continue to play the role as
normal teenagers, but Luke was only trying to fool himself into
pretending he cared about something as mortal as high school. Hayden
couldn’t even look in my eyes as he walked past me, heading toward
his room upstairs. I gave Luke a death stare before running after
Hayden.

“What’d I do?”
Luke said behind me.

It was unusual seeing
Hayden alone in his room. His room was clean and smelled of him with
a hint of something else, something I couldn’t figure out yet. I
had never looked at his room this way before and I realized I was
looking at it as an outsider and not something we shared. The thought
burned the edges of my heart and I tried not to add guilt to that
feeling by remembering what I had said to him in my dream. He came
out of the closet, throwing a small black duffle bag on the bed.
Something clanked inside that told me there was something other than
clothes in it. I hadn’t seen Hayden this upset since I'd had a
death wish and had stolen his Porsche.

“I’m going with
you.”

He smirked, pulling up
one side of his smile. “You can’t.” His head hung, and he
didn’t take his eyes off of a blade he examined.
Oh.
So
definitely not clothes in the bag. How many weapons did he own?

“I am not staying
here alone.”

He sheathed the blade
and put it in his bag. “You won’t be alone.” He looked at me
now as if to gauge my expression. “Luke will be here.”

“I don’t want to be
here without you.” I walked over to him, stopping him by wrapping
my arms around his neck. He looked away and I tried to catch him with
my eyes. “There is no reason I can’t come with you. It’s not
like it’s anything dangerous.” My thoughts flashed to his arsenal
and I wondered if maybe he
was
going to be doing something
dangerous.

“Tomorrow is your
first day back at school since Katrina and you have dinner with your
father. It would look a little suspicious if he asked about the truck
and then all of a sudden you didn’t show up.”

I could have argued
with him. It would have probably gone something like this: I
demanding that I was going, he refusing, and then I ultimately
begging to go with him. But what that said was that I wasn’t
capable of being alone, or that Hayden couldn’t trust me alone with
Luke. There was no uncertainty in my feelings for Hayden. There was
no reason I couldn’t be alone, even if it was with his brother,
with whom I had shared a passionate kiss on the beach.

I pulled Hayden into my
lips. He would be gone for a night and I had to stock up on the
kisses I would lose. I licked my lips in invitation. His eyes changed
and something sultrier took over him. He exhaled one breath, letting
me know I had won at least one battle. I smiled as I returned his
kiss. He always kissed me like it was his last.

I jolted awake to
find myself enshrouded in darkness. Not even the muted sunlight lit
up my curtains. Somewhere between watching Hayden pack and get ready,
I had decided it was a good idea to lie down. I looked at the clock;
it was 7:30 pm. I hated sleeping like that; I wouldn’t be able to
fall back asleep again until dawn. I looked around the room. No
Hayden, just like I had dreamt. A pang of sadness shot through me
along with déjà vu. At least I was able to succeed in assuring him
of my intentions before he left. I picked up my phone. I had a few
missed calls and texts but the only one I focused on was Hayden’s.

Hayden:
I left for Texas, but you
already knew that. I love
you,
and even though you already know
that too, I will never
stop telling you.

My heart ached even
more than it had before.

I got up and decided to
do something productive. I called Marie to tell her all about the
dream I had during my nap. Another nightmarish dream that I hoped
wasn’t a prediction. Nikki and Marie had been very accepting after
I told them everything, well, almost everything. Marie, surprisingly,
believed what I had said right away. Nikki on the other hand was
harder to convince. Luckily, my dreams were cooperating and I was
able to predict a few things to Nikki. I scared her off for a good
week but she came around. Pretty soon she was back to the same old
Nikki, joking around and thinking my predictions were humorous. She
asked for the lotto numbers on more than one occasion. Marie was
oddly the supportive one. She was the first one I would call after a
dream.

I described the attack
I saw in my dream. “The scenery sounds a lot like Lafitte,” she
noted. She was right. The swamps and the walking paths in my dream
did look like Jean Lafitte National Park. I hadn’t been there in
years so I had no idea what it could look like now. “But there are
a lot of places in Louisiana that look like that, so…” she added
after my pause.

“Yeah,” I agreed,
but my mind focused back to my dream. I wrapped things up with Marie,
realizing that the house seemed too quiet. I wondered if Luke had
left me alone. It was completely dark as I walked downstairs. I
looked to the couch, where I expected to find Luke flipping through
channels. A sole light shone from the kitchen. I walked
apprehensively towards it, raising my bare feet unintentionally to my
tiptoes.

“Luke? What are you
doing?” My heartbeat leveled, feeling relief that I was not alone.

He looked up at me from
the breakfast table. “Reading a book.” He held it up with one
hand as evidence.

“You’re reading?”

“Yup.”

“A book?”

“
Yes
...” He
sat the book down now, looking me square in the face from across the
table where I now sat. “Why is that so hard to believe?”

“It’s not; I just
didn’t expect it is all. So, what are you reading?”

“Oh, just some book I
found of yours.”

I scoffed. Of course he
went through my purse. “Well, do you like it?” He would say no at
which point I could say that he shouldn’t have been going through
my stuff.

“Actually, yeah. It
is really good. I haven’t been able to put it down.”

I raised one eye brow
at him but he was serious. I let out a laugh before it disappeared.
Looking out the door to the backyard made me think about the dark
swamp I saw in my dream and the jogger who went in unknowingly.

“What’s wrong?”
Luke scooted his chair closer to where I sat; his scent pooled in the
air around me. I held in a breath. Luke chuckled and adjusted his
chair. Dang, I hated how he knew his effect on me. I couldn’t hide
anything from these two, especially not the quickening of my
heartbeat as a result of my embarrassment. Thankfully he moved
further back so I found it safe to breathe again. But I hated the
fact that I should care about how good Luke smelled in the first
place. His scent was stronger than Hayden’s and completely
different. Hayden smelled like summer and Luke, like autumn. He
smelled sweet-yet-earthy, like oranges and dried leaves.

I shook my head. “It’s
nothing. I just had this dream…” I thought if I talked, it would
keep my mind off other things.

“Tell me about it,”
he said before I could brush off the topic.

“I don’t know
anymore, Luke. Why am I dreaming of these things?” The question was
rhetorical and his lips curled down and waited for me to say more.

“I had a dream last
night about Hayden leaving and despite anything he or I tried to do,
it still came true, he still left. What is the purpose of seeing the
future if I can’t do anything about it? I don’t know if I will
have an ordinary dream or a horrible dream when I close my eyes. I
took a nap today and dreamed of an attack. It was someone I didn’t
know, in some place I didn’t know, or maybe I do know but what’s
the point?”

“You know the place
in your dream?”

“Marie had said it
sounded like Lafitte and maybe she’s right.”

“Then let’s go.”
Luke stood up grabbing his keys off the kitchen counter.

I followed. “Wait,
what? What do you mean ‘let’s go’?” Adrenaline rushed through
my body at the thought.

“You keep sitting
here, beating yourself up about what you see. You want to help, you
want to change the future but you’re afraid to do anything about
it.”

“I…I’m not
afraid. I just thought it was too dangerous. You know, the whole
protecting me bit?”

He raised his eyebrows
at me, answering all my questions at once.

“You really think I
can change what I see in my dreams, to stop it from happening?” I
became more and more excited at the thought of him believing in me,
believing that I could do something about it.

“Well not
just
you. But you and me? Hell yeah.” He smile was infectious and I
couldn’t help but returning the look. “C’mon.” He grabbed my
arm, sending a numbing sensation throughout my body as he pulled me
toward the garage.