The Haunted (33 page)

And with that, he turned his back and walked away.

My vision went blurry, and I realized I was crying. My legs gave out. I tried to stand, but they wouldn’t work, so I had to crawl over to where Caspian was lying.

“Caspian,” I whispered; my throat was raw and sore. “Casper… please. Open your eyes.”

He didn’t answer.

I touched his shoulder, but my hand went through to the ground. I tried again, and again, then pounded my fist against the grass in frustration. “Caspian!” I prayed to every god that was out there for him to please open his eyes.

Rocking back on my heels, I felt a keening moan erupt from inside of me. This wasn’t supposed to happen. We were supposed to be together. It wasn’t supposed to be like
this
.

“Abbey,” I heard him say. “Abbey…”

My eyes were blurry again with streaming tears.

“Caspian! Are you okay? Oh my God, I thought you were… I didn’t know what I thought. Just something bad.” I couldn’t help myself—I tried to touch his face and hit solid ground again.

He gazed up at me, looking like a fish out of water. “I’m okay… just knocked the nonexistent breath out of me.” He closed his eyes and murmured, “I think I slipped into the dark place.”

“Don’t go there again,” I pleaded. “Okay?”

His eyes opened, and I could see their brilliant green reflecting back at me. “I won’t,” he promised. “Just let me close my eyes for a couple of minutes.”

I nodded, and when I thought ten minutes had passed, I whispered, “Caspian.”

I didn’t think he’d heard me. But then his eyes opened and flickered to mine. “I’m here. I didn’t go to the dark place.”

“Good. I would have followed you there.”

He looked startled by my statement, and after a moment of silence, cleared his throat. “Let’s see if everything is in working order.” He tried to stand and almost fell, but caught himself against the door. I clenched my fists. It was
so
hard not to be able to help him. But he managed on his own, and even cracked a grin at me. “I’m fine. Still dead.”

“Don’t say that.”

“Why? It’s the truth.”

“I know, but… still.” I scowled. “I don’t need the reminder right now, okay?”

He fell silent and looked around us.

“He’s gone,” I said, answering his unasked question. “But I think we need to take a trip to go see Nikolas and Katy and tell them what just happened.”

He nodded his agreement, and I stood too. Then we turned toward the path that led to their house.

It took us a while to get there, though, because the woods were dark, and it was tricky finding our way. When we finally made it, I led the way to their door and knocked loudly in case they were still asleep.

Nikolas answered right away, dressed in his usual overalls. “Abbey?” He cast a glance behind me at Caspian.

“I’m sorry it’s so early, Nikolas. But we need to talk to you.”

He waved a hand. “We are early risers. Is something the matter?”

“What’s a Revenant?” I asked.

Nikolas paled and gestured for us to come in, scanning the woods behind us as he shut the door. Katy was sitting in the rocking chair by the fireplace, but rose when she saw us. I nodded my head at her, suddenly tired and overwhelmed and not in the mood for pleasantries.

After I introduced Caspian to her, we all sat down at the kitchen table, and I waited for Nikolas to explain. He stalled.

“How are you doing, Abbey? Would you like some tea? We could make some tea if you’d like.”

I banged my fist on the table. “Answers, Nikolas! I need answers.”

He looked shocked by my outburst, and I sighed loudly. “I’m sorry, but I’ve been up all night, my best friend’s maybe-murderer followed me to the cemetery and almost attacked me, and then he threw Caspian into a mausoleum door. So, what’s a Revenant, and how come you told me to pay attention because it might save my life, Nikolas?”

Nikolas and Katy exchanged a glance, and then suddenly Nikolas stood up, moving to the window. “This person who attacked you, he called himself a Revenant?” Nikolas addressed his question to the window and didn’t look at me.

“Yes.”

“What did he look like to you?” Nikolas asked.

“Black hair, blue eyes, expensive clothes, and a snotty attitude.” A sour taste filled my mouth. “There was always something about him that got on my nerves. Even from the first time I met him, last year at my uncle’s store.”

“Did he have a particular scent? Or a beautiful voice?” Nikolas said, finally turning away from the window to face me.

“No, he…” My voice died, and Caspian gave me a questioning look. I was suddenly flooded with an overload of images. Melodic voices, and the taste of ash on my tongue. It was like I was remembering things I didn’t even know I’d forgotten. “Wait. It’s like…” I struggled for the words. “I’m remembering these strange people I’ve met. Twice, this guy and girl talked to me, and they had beautiful voices that sounded like music. And clear eyes. It was almost like looking into glass. I think the girl had blond hair. The guy had his dyed black. Before they left the first time, I smelled something burning. Like leaves. The second time, I tasted ash on my tongue.”

I looked at Nikolas, confused as to why these memories were surfacing.

Nikolas returned to the table. “Is there anything else you can remember? This is very important, Abigail.”

For some reason the slip of my proper name bothered me. It struck a serious chord, and I frowned. “There were these two people that came over for dinner the other night. They said they were real estate agents, new in town. The woman had red hair that I kept thinking was originally blond. And when she walked by me, she had on this strange perfume that smelled like ash. I thought dinner was burned or something, because I kept smelling it.” I glanced at Caspian. “The man had a strange name.”

“Kame?” Nikolas asked.

“Yes, how did you know that?”

Nikolas and Katy exchanged another worried glance, and I gripped the table edge as fear washed over me. “Guys, what’s going on?”

“You are
very
certain that the first two strangers and the second two strangers you met were different people?” Katy asked.

I thought about it for a minute then said, “I’m sure. The first two, Cacey and Uri, were my age, and the other two, Kame and Sophie, were closer to my parents’ age. And then there’s Vincent Drake. He’s the one who
told
me he was a Revenant.”
I looked back and forth between them. “Are they all… the same thing?”

Katy nodded, and Nikolas’s eyes looked worried.

Leaning forward, I said to Nikolas, “Please tell me. What
is
a Revenant?”

He locked eyes with Katy. “A Revenant is sent to help the living half cross over to the Shade half. Caspian is dead, yet he’s here, because he is a Shade. A shadow caught between two worlds. The black stripe is the brand that marks him as this. Did you have a near-death experience?” he asked Caspian. “Before your actual death.”

Caspian nodded.

“That is when the mark came. You were destined to be one of us. I had a near-death experience of my own.” He turned to look at me. “You are his other half, his living half. His partner and companion. Attuned to his frequency, in a sense, and destined to fill the missing piece of his soul.” Nikolas rested his hand on top of Katy’s, smiling lovingly at her. “A soul mate.”

I gulped and peeked over at Caspian. He had his hands spread wide on the tabletop and was staring down at them.

Nikolas resumed talking. “Katy and I have been completed. We call it, in the Dutch language,
een koppeling
. A coupling. That is why we are here at this place. What happens when you and Caspian are completed… I cannot say.”

Thoughts were slowing arranging themselves in my brain, and I started to put them together. “So all this living half and dead half, and crossing-over stuff… Are you saying… ?”

Katy looked at me and nodded. “You are going to die soon, Abbey.”

The room grew very still, and everyone waited, all eyes on me. I let out a breath I didn’t even know I’d been holding. “Oh.”

“I am sorry we did not tell you before, when you came to see us,” she said. “How does one bring up the nearness of death? But once the Revenants find you, a choice must be made. They found me a year after Nikolas and I had met. We both thought that perhaps it would be longer for you.”

“That’s why I urged you to reconsider,” said Nikolas. “To stay away from Caspian. To pay attention to what I could not say, in a desperate hope that it would save your life.”

“You
told
her to stay away from me?” Caspian asked.

Nikolas gave him a hard look. “Have you even seen two sides of a whole? There is usually a dark half and a light half. Now, between Katy and me, I know that I am the darker half. I have much blood upon these hands as a soldier for hire in my past life, and I’m betting that between you and Abbey,
she
is the light one. So what dark secrets do you hold, boy?”

Caspian looked angry. “Did you ever think that things might have changed? We don’t live and die by the sword anymore. I may not
have
a lifetime of darkness to atone for. Maybe I just need her to be the star in my night sky. To hold back the darkness and to let me see the light.” He looked at me then, and my throat went dry. “Or maybe it really is as simple as something in her fills the hollow in me. The black void disappears when we are together.”

I linked my hands together and stared down at them, in awe of what he’d just said. His words filled my heart until all the cracks that had once been there were gone.

“If that is what she means to you, then you are the one,” Nikolas said. “And I extend my hand.”

I looked up in time to see them shaking solemnly, and I mouthed the words
I love you
to Caspian. He smiled his breathtaking smile at me, and my toes went numb.

Nikolas cleared his throat, and I blushed, realizing that my feelings were probably written all over my face.

“Okay,” Caspian said, directing us back to the topic at hand. “So now we know why the Revenants are here.”

“Actually, that is the problem,” Nikolas replied. A fretful look was back on his face. “Revenants don’t work alone. They are paired into teams of two, and only one team is needed.”

“So when Katy… passed, and the Revenants were here, there were only two of them?” I asked.

“Yes.”

“Why are there five of them now?” said Caspian.

“We don’t know,” Katy replied.

“Tell me more about this Vincent Drake,” Nikolas asked me. “He was aggressive toward you?”

“Yeah, he was.” I remembered that moment in the alley, and I shivered. “And he grabbed Caspian by the throat and threw him.”

Nikolas shook his head. “That does not make any sense. Revenants help, not harm. This is a troublesome situation. I am fearful of what it means.”

“It means that I’m going to die soon,
you
don’t know what’s going to happen to me and Caspian once I die and we’re completed or whatever, and the Revenants may or may not be here to cause that death!” Everything suddenly felt like it was crashing down on me, and I buried my head in my arms.

“I think Abbey should go home and get some rest,” Caspian said.

“I’m fine,” I mumbled.

“No, you’re not. You need to get some sleep and have some time to process this.”

I lifted my head. “Hey, I know! We can go on the run. Leave town. If we stay away long enough, maybe Vincent and the Revenants will leave.”

“They will find you, Abbey,” Katy said. “It may take a month, it may take a year, but in the end it’s only a matter of time.”

“So is it like a bloodhound thing?” I asked. “They have my scent now?”

“Something like that,” Nikolas said. “We are not certain of everything.”

I laughed, and even I could hear the note of hysteria in my voice. “All I should have to do then is change my perfume. Ha! Great.”

Caspian stood up abruptly. “Let’s go.”

He gave me a stern glare, and I reluctantly stood up too. “I could just stay here,” I argued. “I’d be safe here.”

“Home. Bed.
Now,
” Caspian ordered.

“Okay, okay. It was just a suggestion. Geez.”

He ushered me out of the house, and we found ourselves back on the path. I let him take the lead, and he did a good job of getting us back to the cemetery without any wrong turns into the forest.

It was almost dawn now, and we walked silently back
toward the main gate. Once we hit the path that would lead us there, Caspian stopped. “I want to show you something.”

“Can it wait?” I was frazzled, full of raw edges and nervous energy. I really just wanted to get home and crash.

“It won’t take long,” he promised. “But you need to see this.”

He turned to lead me to the side of the cemetery that I hardly ever went to. When we came to a stop, we were standing in front of two extremely old, faded red headstones. They were the type to have elaborate winged skulls and angels dressed as the Grim Reaper on them.

Or they would have, if they were still intact.

Now they were completely shattered. The fronts of them nothing more than cracked, bleeding stone. Carved names and dates were lost forever to time. I gasped as the sun rose, revealing the full extent of the damage. It was a horrible sight.

“I don’t want there to be anything between us,” Caspian said. “Do you remember when I told you about how I was angry and destructive?”

I nodded.

“I did this,” he said quietly. “On my first day here, I was so frustrated, so mad that no one could hear me, I picked up a rock and threw it at them again and again. Smashing them
to pieces so they’d be broken and unrecognizable… like me.”

I gazed at him in disbelief. It didn’t seem right. It didn’t seem like him at all. “I heard about some tombstones being vandalized, but they said some kids did it.”

Caspian shook his head sadly. “Not kids.
Me
. And I come here every once in a while to remind myself of it.”

He held my gaze, and his eyes were highlighted by the sun. They were so vivid.

“This is what I always have to remember, Abbey.” He flexed his hands and looked at them. “I might be invisible, but I can still touch things…
hurt
people.” He looked away and mumbled, “Hurt
you
.”