XXIII.
I had been told all my life that for a Cabello, bravery had never been in short supply. However never had I believed it until the moment my eyes closed to the world I knew, and opened to the Silent Hill.
"Camila."
I stretched, curling up and brushing away the hand on my shoulder. Much to my distain, it quickly returned.
"Camila."
"She's not home." I grumbled softly, squeezing my eyes closed.
"Hey, my new soccer ball!" A whine broke out on the other side of me, and my hit head the glass of my windshield painfully.
"Shawn, you can inflate it again." Lauren's voice was full of a lazy humour.
"Where's the little tab thing?"
"On the other side, turn it over."
"I don't see it."
I groaned, sitting up on the top of the car and rubbing my eyes. "I'm glad you guys are back. Talk about your rude awakenings."
"Let's head home Mila." Dinah was on my other side, pulling gently at my makeshift blanket. "We're all going to stay over at your place tonight, just as a little farewell get together."
I looked at her. "So you're okay with all this?"
"It's going to be hard." Dinah shrugged. "But yeah, if this is what you need to do then I want you to do it. I trust your judgement, just please don't get yourself killed."
I nodded, then turned to look at Shawn who was staring down at his deflated soccer ball like a kicked puppy. Lauren was in the process of turning it over in his hands, ferociously searching for the plastic stopper that I had torn out and lazily replaced. "Shawn?" I questioned, catching his attention.
"Soccer ball killer." Shawn muttered back, causing Lauren to giggle.
"Seriously." I swatted the ball out of his hand and Lauren scrambled to catch it before it hit the ground. While she continued to figure out how to inflate it, I reached over and gripped Shawn's arm.
"To be honest, I don't want you to go." Shawn shook his head, pressing his hands into his pockets and moving me away. "But I also know that I can't, and won't stop you. But I think Dinah spoke for both of us when she told you to not die."
"I won't." I replied with a sure nod, glancing over at Lauren for support. It was a lost cause, seeing as she was busy using the edge of her fingernail to pry the plastic cover out of the world's cheapest inflatable.
"When are you guys going to leave?" Dinah asked, drawing idle circles on the smooth metal of the car's hood. "Soon?"
"A few days." Lauren looked up. "There are some things I want to take care of before then, I need to make sure there are no more traces of them in the city."
"Them, you mean the big guys dressed all in black that we saw you castrate the other night?"
"Pretty much." Lauren handed the soccer ball back to Shawn, now perfectly inflated like it was new. The boy smiled big, snatching it back and dropping it to the ground before starting to kick it around like a ten year old.
"How are you going to do that?"
Lauren looked from Dinah to me. "You guys don't need to worry about how. I'll handle it."
"And when do you plan to come home?"
"She won't be gone for long Dinah, I promise." Lauren replied assuringly, half hopping, half floating up onto the hood of the car and settling in next to me, while Dinah did the same on the other side. I brought both arms out to encircle them, draping my wrists over their shoulders and pulling the girls against my chest.
"What about you?" Dinah asked, glancing over at Lauren. "You won't be gone for long either, right?"
"Right." I answered for her, giving them both an affectionate squeeze.
"So what are we going to do for the rest of the night?" Lauren asked after a moment of quiet. "It should be something fun."
"We could celebrate Camila's birthday a few weeks early by drinking and talking all night." Dinah suggested.
"What about David Beckham over there?" I asked, jutting my chin out to where Shawn nearly tripped over his soccer ball.
"Oh he'll be fine." Dinah said with a light laugh. "We'll give him some Benadryl when he falls and cracks his skull open, it'll knock him out no problem."
"Hey, you guys should get off the hood of that car, it really wasn't built to hold a person, let alone three." Shawn called, jogging towards us with his skateboard back under his arm.
"Are you implying we're fat?" Lauren asked, tilting her head to the side innocently.
"Oh, don't you start." Shawn pointed at her. "God, I need to make more guy friends."
"Hey, you want to start off the fun of the night now?' Lauren asked, ignoring Shawn and readjusting her bandage. "I promise this'll be worth it."
"Sure." Dinah jumped off the car and folded her flag, tossing it into the backseat as Shawn did the same with his own things. "What've you got?"
"The three of you get in the car and drive home, and I'll go by foot. We can race. I bet you that I'll get home before you even though my side still aches a little bit." Lauren had a challenging look on her face, her devilish grin shifting from Dinah over to me. "If I get there first, then drinks tonight are on you. If you guys beat me, then I pay."
"I would pay just to see that." I matched her smile.
"Wait." Shawn frowned from the other side of the car. "Are you sure Lauren? What if the thing re-opens or something?"
"I'll be fine." Lauren brushed him off, tossing her jacket into the backseat to reveal a loose white tank top that blended in well with her bandaged torso. Lifting one arm up, I watched the girl try to pull her hair back before cringing in pain and turning to me with a hopeful smile. I took the black hair elastic and gave her a hand, pulling her jet black hair into a high ponytail.
"Be careful." I muttered under my breath, cupping her elbow. "You can be as big a hero as you want, but were still nearly bisected last night. Okay?"
"Alright."
The sight of Lauren darting off into the night was enchanting.
The sight of her leaning casually against the entrance of the apartment as arrived was even more so.
***
It was a vast understatement to say that the conversation that night changed me. The world I knew was different with the knowledge that it wasn't the only one out there, and it was boggling knowing how many people around me lived their own lives oblivious.
"Shawn, can you give me a hand for a second?" Lauren asked when the four of us had settled around the apartment and Dinah was in the process of cracking open the tops of a few glass bottles.
"Sure, what do you need?"
"I need to take the bandages off, and I don't know where the break starts. You wrapped this up really well."
Shawn hopped to his feet and hurried over to a large paper bag that still sat by the TV from the eventful previous night, and retrieved the kitchen scissors. Lauren yanked her tank top off and tossed it in my direction, sitting down on the cushions and crossing her legs beneath her. I hurried over as well, perching myself on the back of the couch to watch.
"Does it hurt at all anymore?" Shawn asked, clipping the edge of the old bandage and slowly starting to peel it away from Lauren's skin.
"It's a little sore." The green eyed girl acknowledged. "But nothing compared to the way it was last night."
"It looks way better." Shawn glanced at me, gesturing to take a look. I grimaced, slowly inching around and getting a look at the girl's back. He was right in that it was far less gruesome than before, but the sealed over scar was still rimmed in dried blood, and looked sensitive to the touch. I shivered, watching as Shawn inspected the skin around before getting up and traversing back to the bag.
"So how did this actually happen?" I asked, realizing that I still didn't have a top to bottom explanation of the night's traumatic events.
"Like I said, I got sloppy." Lauren answered, moving her hair to one side while Shawn returned with a cool cloth and began to pat at the red heat that surrounded the intrusion. "I'm not very good with sneak attacks."
"Are you good with normal ones?" The boy asked playfully.
"Usually."
From the other side of the room, Dinah pranced over and handed Lauren a glass of what looked like orange juice but was likely far from being kid friendly. "Here." She said, smiling. "This should help with the pain. At least they say it will."
"Thanks."
"Careful on the couch." I warned.
"Yes Mom."
"Camila, can you run and grab me a bowl of warm water?" Shawn asked, glancing over at me again. "Some of the bandage got stuck to her skin, I want to get it washed off."
"Sure." I hopped up and filled a stainless steel mixing bowl with lukewarm water from the tap and yanked a clean towel off it's rack. Carrying the items back, Lauren chuckled when she saw me.
"Careful on the couch." The green eyed girl teased.
"I will dump this on your head." I retaliated, sitting down in front of her and dipping the towel into the water. Locating the stuck bandage, I removed it from her stomach quickly, then handed both items over to Shawn.
"Lauren, are you sure that you don't want to take a trip to the hospital and get this looked at?" He questioned, interrupting our banter. "It was a pretty bad avulsion, and I'm no doctor."
"No, I'll be fine. And by the way, you are to me." Lauren leaned against the cushions, resting her glass in her lap and turning her torso so Shawn could get a better angle. I watched him carefully clean around the affected area, using one hand to keep a constant pressure on her skin to diffuse the pain.
"You know, I've kinda been thinking it would be cool if I got into medicine." Shawn murmured, dipping the cloth into the bowl once more.
I looked at him. "Really?"
"Yeah." He looked back, shrugging lightly. "I know it would probably be a challenge, but I have the courses I need to get into most of the programs. My marks aren't all that bad, and I like helping people."
"I thought you were going to take the music world by storm?" I questioned, a small smile involuntarily curling only my lips as I recalled many lectures I had received on this particular topic.
"It's stupid when I say it Mila, you don't need to remind me."
"I think you'd look cute playing a triangle in an orchestra. That's what I always assumed you meant when you said by storm." Dinah joked, bringing over two more glasses of orange juice and setting one down on the coffee table for Shawn. I wrapped my hands around the other one, taking it happily.
"Don't listen to them." Lauren said kindly, arching her back as he instructed her to do so. "I think you'd be a great doctor."
"See?" Shawn beamed at the two of us. "She thinks I'd be a great doctor."
It was amazing to see just how easily Lauren was twisting her way into everyone's hearts. She had an ability, one that went further than simply manipulating air around her. I had never seen a person who so easily made people walk behind her, back her up and both desire and acquire her support.
I watched Shawn finish up, wrapping a new layer of sterile gauze around Lauren's body and securing it at her side. He gave her a small pat, signalling it was okay for her to get up before leaning back on the couch.
I took her place, sliding down on the couch and lying back against him.
"Okay Lauren, question." Dinah proposed, seating herself on the other arm with her own glass in her hand.
"Sure." Lauren nodded, pulling her top back on. "Ask me anything."
"With this cool force field thingy of yours, are there other perks as well? Like can you breathe underwater? Can you control minds? Are you super speedy?"
"No, no and kinda." Lauren answered, laughing lightly. "Honestly, I've never really defined what it is I can do, I sorta just let it happen when it needs to happen."
"Can you lift things without touching them?" Shawn asked. "Like if you were watching TV and needed the remote, would you have to get up?"
"I'm not psychic." The girl grinned, sitting down on the edge of the coffee table and leaning on her knees. Her glass of orange juice had been reduced to half, still dangling from her fingers.
"Can you fly?" I asked.
"No."
"How about invisibility?"
"None."
"Can you control the weather? Like wind and lightning and stuff?"
"I'm not Zeus." Lauren narrowed her eyes at me playfully. "And before you ask, I don't have laser eyes or frost breath. I can't climb walls like a spider, and I don't have a batmobile." She added quickly.
"Whatever." I nestled back against Shawn, curling onto my side and smiling to myself when his arm went around my shoulder. "It's not like I was going to ask that anyway."
"Okay how about this." Dinah crossed one leg over the other. "Do you use any weapons? Like do you have a cool sword, or a bow and arrow or something?"
"When I was travelling I came across an old car that had it's hood propped up with these two metal rods. I used them for some time, but I lost track of them along the way. I also have a little knife with a retractable blade." Lauren shrugged. " It's in that bag over by the hall."
Just as Lauren was pointing over to the dark backpack that still sat by the door, Dinah was on her feet to fetch it. I glanced at Shawn, then over to Lauren who was smirking at me.
"Yeah, we kinda went through a lot of your stuff yesterday night. We were scared."
"You had the right to be."
"Wow, you know I didn't get a very good look at this thing before, it's actually really pretty." Dinah remarked from the other side of the room, holding up the switch blade. "Did you make the handle yourself?"
"I just made a few modifications, nothing too intense." Lauren corrected, twisting to look behind her. "Be careful though."
"Hey, what's this?"
I looked up as Dinah knelt to the ground to retrieve something. It looked like a slip of paper, no bigger than a folded sticky note.
"Oh, that's..." Lauren was about to get up before Dinah had turned over the page and was unfolding it.
"This is cool." She commented as Lauren deflated back down onto the table. "Who are these people?"
"Those are the people I'm looking for." Lauren nodded, accepting the photo from Dinah. "This is Clara's family."
I sat up, suddenly interested. Lauren handed the picture over to me without my asking, and I leaned back into Shawn again to study it. It was an old fashioned polaroid, one that was wrinkled and curled at the edges and stained on the side with something that was reminiscent of old tea. Shawn looked over my shoulder, taking a peek as well.
"It's a beautiful family." I remarked, giving him a better view. "Is this her?"
"Yeah." Lauren took a long sip from the glass in her lap. "That's her."
"She's pretty." I added.
"I love pictures like this." Shawn murmured, reaching up and taking the photo from me. "Polaroids are so old fashioned that nowadays, they make all our digital stuff seem lame and unoriginal." He paused. "Hey Lauren?"
"Yeah?"
"You know this unfolds, right?"
Lauren frowned, getting up and crouching down beside the head of the couch. "What?"
"The piece of paper that this photo is mounted on has another side." He reached around me and flicked at a fraying corner with his thumb. "This is Florida, it's always so humid that everything sticks together. Look, there's a gap here."
I sat up, watching as Lauren accepted the picture back and turned it over, seeking out the corner and pulling at carefully. Dinah had migrated over as well, the knife still in her hand.
"Is there anything on the other side?" I asked, eagerly draping my body over Shawn's to get a better look. "Maybe some names, or a map to some treasure or something?"
The boy nudged me, shooting me a pointed look.
"No." Lauren had her eyes glued down on the page. "Just this."
Handing the piece of paper back, the three of us leaned in all at once to take a look. On the other side was writing, messily scrawled along the page in a pen that was clearly losing its ink. It was odd, and almost held an eerie feel. What had me shivering was the fact that the very last word was trailed off to the side of the page, almost as if the person writing it hadn't gotten a chance to finish.
Lauren Jauregui - A link between worlds
***
I felt the air of the apartment shift dramatically upon looking up.
"So you have no idea what it means?" Dinah questioned, setting the photo down on the table and leaning back.
Lauren silently shook her head, polishing off half of the vodka induced orange juice and placing the glass down on the ground. Getting up, no further words were exchanged before she got up and headed down the hall into the bedroom.
"Did I say something?" Dinah looked to me in confusion.
"No." I sat up, rolling over Shawn and getting to my feet. "Don't worry about it, I'll go talk to her."
With a consoling smile in Dinah's direction, I headed down the hall and knocked softly on the bedroom door, waiting only a few seconds before entering. Lauren was seated on the edge of the bed, her legs crossed and a thin pile of papers on her lap.
"Hey." I closed the door behind me, padding over to the bed and sitting down on the edge. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah." Lauren smiled softly. "I'm alright. I just... I'm discouraged."
"A link between worlds." I shifted over the comforter so my shoulder just brushed hers. "All of this has got to mean something, and we're going to figure it out. I'm going to help you now, remember?" Looking down, I noticed that the papers she had been looking at were her original pencil drawings. "I love those by the way."
"I thought that maybe somewhere in my head I had answers." Lauren said with a sigh. "I thought that my subconscious would tell me what I needed to know, I just had to coax it out of myself." Flipping through the pages, Lauren landed on the one I loved the most, the pencil sketch of the girl with a pair of butterfly wings attached to her back. I took the single drawing from her to admire it myself.
"No one is supposed to leave." Lauren muttered. "No one. There aren't supposed to be any links, yet somehow..." Her voice trailed off and she studied the picture. "I can't live my life alone, constantly being chased around the world. One day they're going to catch up to me and get rid of me, just like they do with all the others." She looked over at me, a sense of urgency in her eyes.
"Well that's tough." I placed a hand on her knee. "Because from now on, you're not going at anything alone."
"No?"
"No." I lifted the picture. "By the way, this one is still my favourite. It's so beautiful."
"What can I say." Lauren leaned on my shoulder, gazing down at the drawing. "You inspire me."
After a few seconds of gentle, comfortable silence, I placed the pencil image back on the pile and glanced down at her. "Hey Lauren?"
"Mmhm?"
"I change my mind."
"About what?"
"I'm not okay with you sleeping with anyone else anymore."
Lauren lifted her head, and I met her eyes carefully. She had a precious smile on her face.
"Want it or not, I was never going to."
"Really?"
"Camila." My name came out in a breath of laughter. "My god you're adorable."
Seconds later my mouth was locked to hers, my body receding back so she could carefully lead us into a position that didn't irritate her side. The kiss felt just as different as the one on the beach, captivating in a way that all the kisses with Lauren hadn't been before. It was saying something considering there had been a lot of kisses. A lot.
"Come on." She whispered, the warmth of her breath tickling my ear. "Let's go back out there and have a good time tonight. I'm already pretty drunk, so it can only go up from here."
"How charming."
"I know you love me."
"I really do." I arched up, snatching away one last peck at the corner of her mouth before she rolled off me and straightened up. Following, the two of us headed back down the hall and into the living room.
"Lauren, Camila!" Dinah was on her feet while Shawn had perched himself on the arm of the couch and was still staring intently at the photo. The girl had a wild look in her eye,
"What's going on?" Lauren's hold on my hand tightened as she frowned at Dinah. "Is everything okay?"
"Shawn thinks he knows who these people are!"
"What?" I blinked in disbelief as Lauren let me go and rounded around to where Shawn was seated. "Shawn, seriously?"
"I swear to god I've seen this girl before." Shawn pointed down to where the daughter of the family stood smiling next to a older boy with gelled up brown hair. "It might have been at a sports game, or a play, or something else that the school arranged. I can't remember exactly, but I know I've seen her somewhere."
"We could check the school records!" Dinah proposed excitedly, using a series of dramatic hand gestures as she spoke. "Camila, where's your laptop?"
"In my bedroom." I nodded down the hall. "Why?"
"Because the board posts all the school's events on the main website so grandparents and faraway relatives can get in on the action. It's pretty much just a bunch of stay at home moms with nothing to do. They keep it updated pretty well, and there are always pictures." Dinah explained to me. "We can scan through the gallery, maybe something will jog Shawn's memory."
"It's worth a shot." I nodded as Dinah disappeared down the hall in a flurry of movement, then jogged over to Lauren's side to drape my arms over her shoulders. It was subtle, but I could feel her body shaking.
Five minutes later, the four of us were gathered around my computer, clicking and scrolling through the school's main website. Shawn and Dinah worked in tandem, scanning every basketball game, tennis match and swim meet that the school had held over the past year and a half, while I clicked mindlessly through the pictures. Lauren had draped her body over my back, napping off the alcohol and releasing a cute sleepy purr every once and a while.
"There was a field." The boy recalled, prompting me to filter my search results to baseball, soccer and field hockey. "And I think the team we were playing had blue and white as their school colours... maybe blue and yellow?"
"How about this one?" I asked, bringing up a picture of our school's female soccer team plastered against the background of a sunny park. The mascot, a massive orange crab had suited up and was posing with the girls.
"No, there wasn't any seafood." He replied, shaking his head. "I'm pretty sure I went with my family because my sister had a friend on the team... maybe she knows more. What time is it right now?"
"It's only ten." I replied, checking the clock in the top righthand corner of the screen. "When do your parents make her go to bed?"
"It's not a matter of when they make her go to bed, it's more when she chooses to go to bed." Shawn fished his phone out of his back pocket it brought it around, tapping around the screen. "That girl spends hours at night on her phone talking to god knows who."
"Give her a call." Dinah suggested. "It probably wouldn't hurt to try."
"Do it." I nodded, gesturing over my back to where Lauren was nuzzled happily in between my shoulder blades. "We need to figure this out... for her."
"Alright, give me a minute." Shawn got up and brought his phone to his ear, disappearing around the corner and down the hall.
"I'm getting up." Dinah stretched, yawning. "Do you want me to top off your glass?"
"That'd be great, thanks." I slid my empty over to her. "And while you're at it, can you grab that blanket off the back of the couch and drape it over her? I can feel her shivering."
"Sure." Dinah dropped the glasses on the kitchen counter and retrieved the blanket, draping it gently over Lauren's back and tucking it around her shoulders. "Hey Mila, can we talk about this for a second?"
"Talk about what?"
"You and Lauren. What's going on with the two of you?"
I rested my chin down on my arms, sighing and closing my eyes. "I don't know Dinah. We haven't labeled what we are, and to be honest, that's okay with me. I think its okay with her as well."
"You know, I never thought this would work."
I looked up. "Hm?"
"This weird "screwing around without feelings" thing the two of you were doing. I thought for sure it would end badly, because that's just how people are wired."
"Well we're wired differently." I shrugged. "But there are feelings now, and both of us know it. We've said our I love yous."
I smiled as Dinah's soft brown eyes flew wide. "You have?"
"Yeah." I craned my neck to peek at Lauren. While asleep, her features had lost all their intimidating nature, and she looked more peacefully innocent than I had ever seen her. "It's not important what we define this relationship as. The bottom line is we care about each other, and we like spending time together. That's all that matters to me."
"Wow." Dinah leaned back on her hands, stretching her legs out before her.
"What?"
"No nothing, it's just that... you've really changed over the last few months. It's amazing."
"Have I?" I looked up at her. "Like, good or bad?"
"Good." Dinah smiled. "Really good."
"Guys." Shawn reappeared his phone in his hand. "My little sister figured it out. We did go to the game together, it was the girls field hockey finals against some school uptown. I took a picture of Lauren's photo and texted it to her, and she recognized the girl right away."
Dinah twisted to look at him. "Who is it? Did she have a name?"
"No." The boy tossed his phone onto the couch. "Aaliyah never met the girl, but her friends have said that she's a pretty good player. They use her in almost every game because she's got an infamously killer swing. Infamous for the other teams of course."
"So how are we going to find her?" The blonde asked.
Shawn took a large breath in, then spat out everything at once. "The school team was the Cyclones from the Carrollton School of Sacred Heart. I've never heard of it, but apparently it's some prissy private school over in Coconut Grove? I figure the best thing to do would be wait for tomorrow to go down there and ask around. If we have her picture, it shouldn't be too hard to find her, right?"
Dinah frowned. "Isn't that an all girls school? I don't think they're going to be very happy to see three slimy public school kids storming down there and insisting we talk to this girl."
I felt Lauren stir against me, grumbling as her body twisted and rolled around. I arched my back, looking over my shoulder. "Lauren." I urged gently. "Lauren, I think we've got a lead for you."
Green eyes popped open immediately, and the girl tried then to roll off my back. I twisted my torso, not wanting her to disembark quite yet. "What's going on?" She asked sleepily, her voice raspy and dry. "You figured something out?"
Shawn crossed his legs down on the carpet. "We don't know what her name is yet, but it shouldn't be hard to find."
As he filled Lauren in on everything else that had happened, I did a quick google search of the school, bringing up a pristine looking photo of a pink clay building outside a bright blue water feature. Jotting down the address on my hand, I snapped the laptop shut.
"So we figured that heading down there tomorrow would be the best bet. Maybe we drop by after school?" Shawn finished.
Lauren's frame shifted above me as she inhaled, then propped herself up, checking the time on the microwave clock. "Let's go now."
As if it had been rehearsed, the three of us swung our heads over to her and gaped in disbelief.
"Are you crazy?" Dinah asked first, blinking at her. "There isn't even going to be anyone there right now."
"Maybe not, but at the very least I can get a name." Lauren's shoulders lifted. "But I don't want to leave this until the morning. I've been looking for this family for years now, if we have a lead, then I'm going to follow it. You guys don't have to come along if you don't want to. I can go by foot."
"Hey." I sat up as well, the muscles of my back screaming angrily at the sudden change in pressure. "You're not going alone, don't be silly."
Lauren stood up, one hand bracing her side. "Alright." She said, grinned down at the three of us with a signature devilish charm. "Who's ready for a little late night adventure with yours truly?"
***
A/N: I finished mapping out the end of this book and may or may not have cried myself to sleep last night. So excited. Thanks for reading 😀