We all pace nervously outside of the cave entrance while we wait for the bus to show up. There's an edge on the air. We are all a little more than nervous. This could easily be a cruel trick.
Mom seems sure where she stands off to the side, continuously adjusting the skirt of her red sundress like she hasn't seen Daddy in years and she's nervous. She may be sure, but after what I'd just seen, I just can't wrap my head around it.
Twelve of them, incapacitated, against a herd of Casters. It would have taken one hell of a miracle to save even just one of them. I guess I'm praying for the miracle though. I try not to let my doubts show for Mom as the sound of gravel crunches in the distance.
Could it really be true though? My family coming back from the dead?
None of us have been able to sleep since Dad called. I haven't even entertained the idea despite how physically and mentally exhausted I am. I can't fall asleep and risk this miracle all being a part of a dream.
Fallon takes my hand at my side and raises her brows over her big hopeful eyes. "Almost here." She tells me.
I hold my breath.
Six seconds changed everything only a few hours ago. Can six more seconds put back together all of the pieces of my heart and life that were shattered before? Can it be so easy?
The bus pulls up into view and before it's even come to a complete stop the door is swinging open and my Dad appears, my heart spasming in fits after having believed I'd never lay my eyes on the man who molded me again.
Mom, who so rarely uses her abilities, flashes across the space and crashes into his arms. They both cry and hold onto each other, muttering I love you's between kisses.
I look away just in time to look up and be wrapped in a blue suited hug. I grip his shoulders and hug him close to me. "My Rosie." He says so happily, not a trace of torture or sadness from his time away showing now.
"Pedro." I smile into his chest. I never expected to see him again, yet here he is. I cling onto him, the fear that this could all be a twisted dream still playing in the back of my mind. But this has to be real.
This is my Papa Pedro. It looks like him. Sounds like him as he rolls on and on about how proud of me he is. It even smells like him. But all my doubts drift away when he gives me a once over, looking at me like I'm the one who was just held as a prisoner. "Rosie, what are you wearing?" He chuckles to himself at my baggy black t-shirt and grey soffe shorts with thigh high socks and converse. He shakes his head and then reaches out to tap me on the nose with his index finger.
I know I'm grinning like an idiot but I can't help it. "I've missed you." I admit.
"And I, you."
Dad breaks in between us, crushing me to him and I can't hold back my tears anymore. "Daddy." His grip tightens on me and I never want him to let go. Wrapped up in his arms has always made me feel safe and after the last few hours I need to feel protected by my dad again. "I thought you were dead." My voice sounds small and childlike but I don't care, not with my dad and Pedro here in front of me, alive.
Octavia comes over and she, mom, and Pedro huddle into a crying mess to my left and I let my eyes rove over to the bus where the rest of the group steps off.
Lance comes into view, unharmed, and he's the eleventh to disboard. I try to smile at him but the second his eyes meet mine he looks down at the ground, avoiding me.
My mind instantly freezes, something is off and I know it. I push away from the group and walk quickly towards the bus. It's been six seconds since the last person got off of the bus. I start to run, my heart tightening in my chest, as still no one else is getting off.
I get to the side of the bus and before my mind can really go to bad places I see the shadow of a person walking through the bus.
I sigh, holding a hand to my frantically beating heart. I almost even laugh at myself for jumping to conclusions, but then I see his face.
He walks down from the bus, nervous jade green eyes scanning the open space over and over, shaggy auburn hair trying to hide the dark purple scar that cuts a line right through his right eyebrow.
"Rose." My dad's voice calls to me gently but my head is reeling. I glance around again, counting out the people again. Twelve people got off of that bus, and Dalton wasn't one of them.
In his place is a teenager, thirteen at the oldest. Fear painting his face. "Who are you?" I demand angrily. "Where is Dalton?" I shout around at the others. When no one answers I turn back on the boy, easily already pushing six feet tall. He's going to be huge when he's finished growing. "Who are you?" I scream at him again, making him jump.
"M-my name is Rawul." He says lowly, his eyes still searching, like he's looking for a way out.
"Why are you here?" My voice cracks and hands fall on my shoulders, pulling me back.
"Rose, he's here to help-"
"I don't care!" I snap at Dad. "Where. Is. Dalton?"
"Rose, let's-"
"Where?" I yell over him.
He looks down at his feet the same way Lance had. "I don't know."
My breath hitches and I feel hollow. "You don't know?" I shake my head, backing away from him. "I was watching! He was out of the danger and then when the Casters surrounded you all, it was him who put himself into the danger trying to save you all and you don't know where he is? You just left him?"
"It wasn't like that, Rosie," Pedro tries to tell me but I can't listen. "Let's go inside and we can talk."
"I'm not going anywhere!" I shout. "I'm staying right here until he comes back."
Pedro and Dad both step closer to me. "Hunny, we aren't sure that he is coming back."
Tears spring to my eyes and I sink down onto the ground. "W-w-what do you mean?"
"Rose, please come inside and I will tell you everything." Dad begs. "The sun is coming up soon, he's not coming back tonight."
I glare up at him but then out to the sky. He's not wrong. Wherever Dalton is, he won't be coming back soon. Ignoring the hands held out to help me up I push to my feet and rush into the little conference room and sit at the far side of the room, away from the others.
"Start talking." I grumble, arms crossed over my chest.
Mom, Malcom, Fallon, Lance, Pedro, Nathaniel, Dad, and Rawul file in behind me and take seats.
"Rose, please try to understand." Dad starts. "I know to you it looks like we abandoned him, but it wasn't like that. He was there, then all of a sudden he wasn't. He took off."
I widen my eyes and lean forward. "Are you trying to say he was the one who ran away?" I ask in disbelief. "He would never run."
Pedro sighs and frowns deeply. "I never thought so either, but..."
"He didn't know in that moment that we were going to make it out alive." Lance whispers.
Before I can yell at them about how they are all liars and covering up what really happened, Mom cuts in. "Calvin, what exactly happened out there?" She grips hold of Dad's forearm. "What Nathaniel and Rose saw was impossible to have gotten away from."
Everyone who was there has a look on their faces like they know what she's said is true. I'm sure they were all just as certain about their coming deaths as I was watching it from the outside.
"It was...a miracle is the only way I know how to put it." Dad searches for the right words, his eyes straying across the room to Rawul. "It took me a second longer inside of the storage container to free Pedro than we had allotted. He was bound with juniper and I had to find material to cover my hands with after taking out his guards." He goes on to explain. "Once we were out it had been too long and the next truck came around the corner, spotting us." He shivers a little and Mom holds him tighter. "They swarmed us, and everything went black for a minute. Suddenly, we were all on the ground and Dalton was being strangled by a woman. My body couldn't move but I could see and process what was happening. He was yelling and the woman basically told us that we were all dead now. I believed it until this boy," he looks over at Rawul. "He just came running out of the woods."
"This kid was your miracle?" Malcom sounds as skeptical as I feel. What could this tall scrawny kid have done to save everyone? Well, not everyone.
"He was." Pedro nods, looking at the boy with curiosity. "He just came out, shaking like a leaf, and yelled for them to stop." He chuckles to himself. "More like, asked nicely for them to stop."
Lance stares down at the table, still not able to look at me. "The Casters started to laugh, and I think they were going to do something to him, but when they tried..."
"It was the strangest thing." Dad says. "He had a bracelet on his wrist, and the big stone in the middle started to glow. One of the women ran away like she'd seen a ghost, while the others tried to use their magic on him." He looks over at me, but I won't meet his eyes either. "I decided to use the distraction as a way to get out, but my own abilities were totally muted too. My speed was gone, my extra strength, it was like I was completely ordinary. But the same thing was happening to the Casters. They were trying to hold us, but they couldn't." Rawul stares straight ahead at the wall, and I glance down at his wrist, looking for this strange bracelet they were talking about, but there's nothing there. "There was a short struggle. With an evened playing field it was easier to pick off the Casters. They've never had a reason to be trained in hand to hand fighting, so we took out a good number of them, while the rest tucked tail and ran. I called out my guys, but when I looked around, Dalton was no where." He shakes his head. "I felt my strength come back and I had to pull out. If our abilities were back so we're the Casters so we had to go. I grabbed Rawel and we came here. I honestly don't know what could have happened to Dalton. I'm sorry Rose."
I stand to my feet, refusing to let another tear leave my eyes. "I don't believe any of this. From what you're saying this one kid was able to shut down not only you but Casters too. How?" I demand, turning towards him. "How did you do it?"
Rawul looks painfully uncomfortable as he shakes his head, rubbing his right wrist. "I don't know. I don't even know what I'm doing here or what is going on. I just happened upon...whatever that was that was going on out in the woods and I tried to help."
"Where is your bracelet?" I point to his empty wrist.
He shrugs again. "I have no idea. I had only just gotten it a couple of days ago. I found it buried out in the woods behind my great granddad's place. He'd died a few months ago and I took it because I felt connected to it. I don't know, like it was meant to be mine." He rubs his wrist again before moving it under the table. "I had it, but then when Calvin pulled me out of the woods where I was trying to run, I didn't have it anymore."
"They said it glowed?"
He nods, then shakes his head. "It was weird. I'd never seen that happen before. I swear I have no clue what's going on."
I rub my eyes with my hands, still not sure what to make of this kid and his miracle bracelet that is now missing. He either knows way more than he's telling or he really is just as clueless as the rest of us. Both options are bad.
All I know is I need to find Dalton.
"Nathaniel?" I call out, talking over the conversation they were continuing. "Help me."
I go to him and take his hand, he ducks his chin to me, knowing what I want. I'm stronger with his help.
I close my eyes, focusing solely on Dalton. The way he smells like sexy cologne, the honey color of his eyes, the way his muscles ripple. I hear his voice in my head, promising to come back to me. I cling to it. To him.
I feel the familiar tingle in my toes begin, but then it stops. I squeeze my eyes tighter and still nothing.
Distressed I look down at Nathaniel, a look of pain on his face. "What does that mean?" I ask, my voice shaking. "Why couldn't we find him?"
His face falls and he looks down.
My eyes cloud over and I can't get out of the room fast enough. I run as fast as my feet can take me, twisting and turning through the small pathways until I can't go any further.
Dalton can't be found because there is no Dalton to find.
The miracle of the day only saved most of my family. It wasn't a miracle for everyone. Not for Dalton.
I huddle onto the floor and cry. He'd promised. I can still hear him. He promised to come back and now the last thing he told me was a lie.
"Rose." Nathaniel's voice makes me jump. "We can't give up hope."
I pull my knees into my chest. "He wouldn't run away, Nathaniel. He isn't like that. He wouldn't just leave and now we can't even locate him together. He's gone."
He shakes his head as he sits beside me. "I can't think that way. I was reunited with him after all these years despite all the many odds in the way. I won't accept this."
His refusal to believe what is obviously true only makes it worse. "I had a vision." I whisper. "I had a vision of myself married to someone else. It didn't make sense at the time, and especially not as Dalton and I grew closer, but now I see. The reason I didn't get a vision of mine and Dalton's future was because we don't get to have one."
Nathaniel surprises me by pulling me in, hugging me gently. "You might not have seen the vision of your future with my son, but I did." He says gently. "I saw a child. A boy, with your eyes and his hair. You name him Clayton." I gasp as he speaks, looking up into his eyes to look for deception, but I see none. "Visions are not concrete. They show many paths. You saw one way your life could go, and I saw another. Neither of us knows which will come true. I know one thing though, and that is that Dalton would not want us to doubt him or to let him hold us back."
"He wouldn't run." I insist again.
Nathaniel nods. "And I don't believe he could be dead."
"Where is he then?"
"I don't know, but I know that he loves you. Whatever has happened, or wherever he is, there has to be more to it. So until we know anything for sure, I chose to believe in miracles. Miracles like what happened today. What will you do?"
I sniffle as I stand. "I chose to believe in miracles too."
**(A/N) wow, so lots going on right now, both in the story and at home for me! So sorry the updates have slowed down, but there are only a couple of chapters left! 😬 I'm excited to finish but also sad at the same time for it to be over! Yalls support has meant the world to me!
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