My mind races back to the moment when Lucas had whispered something similar to me just hours ago. Would it work again? Just as Ethan starts to get up, I reach out and grab his hand.
Again, just as before, a bright light flashes before my eyes.
I feel myself floating above, able to witness what happens below me. I watch down at myself and at Ethan who looks at the other me and smiles curiously as she holds his hand, but she lets go of it and nods to him. Ethan then jumps up from the ground as she stays behind. He brings his bat above his head and just as the greyskin turns to face him, he smashes the side of its head. Like a watermelon, the greyskin’s head crunches open and it falls to the ground lifelessly. I wait to see the tragedy unfold, for Ethan to realize too late that the greyskin wasn’t truly dead. I expect it to reach out to grab his leg and bite into it, ripping away tendons and arteries, but it doesn’t happen. Instead, he looks around the edge of the woods, searching for more greyskins only to turn his head back at her and smile.
“Coast is clear,” he says. “Lonely, nasty greyskin.”
The bright light flashes again and I’m back beside Ethan. To me, the vision lasted about thirty seconds, but to Ethan, I think it took no time at all. But I know what I’ve seen is the future, only this time it doesn’t look grim. I’m holding his hand and he looks at me with a smile on his face, but his eyebrows are jutted forward as though he is curious as to why I’m holding on to him. The last time I had seen the future, I foresaw the person dying, but this time, I foresee him succeeding. Why would I try to stop him?
I let go of his hand and nod to him. Everything happens as I saw. He lifts his bat above his head and the greyskin turns the second it hears Ethan, but Ethan smashes its head with the bat, splitting it wide open. The greyskin doesn’t move after it lands on the ground. Ethan’s swing was true. I watch as Ethan walks along the edge of the woods, searching for any trace of more greyskins, but I already know he won’t find any.
“Coast is clear,” I mutter to myself where he can’t hear me.
“Coast is clear,” Ethan says, turning to me.
“Lonely, nasty greyskin,” I whisper.
“Lonely, nasty greyskin,” he says with a smile.
I know there is a look of shock on my face as I sit up straight, but Ethan just thinks it’s because there was a greyskin.
“Aw, you can’t be afraid of that,” Ethan says, walking back to his seat at the fire. “I mean, those things are creepy, no doubt, but surely you’ve seen worse than that.”
You have no idea, I think to myself.
“Of course,” I say, not knowing what to think about what just happened.
“I’m sorry,” Ethan says. “I know you must have. It’s just the look you’re giving me. It almost looks like you’ve never seen a greyskin before.”
I try to shake my head, but I’m frozen. “I don’t know,” is all I can mutter.
“I have to admit,” he says, “I get pretty shaken up even after three years of this crap.”
But I barely hear him. As I stare into the fire, I wonder what I would have done this time if I had seen Ethan getting devoured in my vision. Would I have been able to stop him? Or is the future I see already set? Could I have stopped Ethan? Could I have stopped Lucas?
Ethan lowers his head to try and meet my eyes, but I stare straight ahead. “You can go to sleep,” I tell him. “Just leave me your bat.” I know I won’t be able to sleep tonight, so I might as well let the other two get some rest. My thoughts are racing. I can’t help but watch the images of the day play over in my head again and again. I feel an overwhelming sense of sadness. The feeling drains me, but I cannot sleep. Slumber will have to take me another night.
Lucas is dead, and flashes of the future make me feel confused. Through all this, I can’t help but think about the past and how this all started. When Ethan finally agrees to go to sleep and let me keep watch through the night, my thoughts drift to the time I first heard about the greyskins. What a terrible day it was.
Chapter 4 – Waverly
Hattie sat across from me, holding her cards spread out in a perfect row in front of her face. I looked down at my hand and shook my head. “Got any eights?” I asked.
Hattie shook her head and smiled. “Go fish.”
I let out a short sigh and drew another card.
“Got any sevens?” Hattie asked me.
This time I shook my head. “Go fish.”
As she reached down, I couldn’t help but look at her wedding band and engagement ring. The diamond was small, and the yellow gold, slender. The jewelry was nothing like what my mom wore. My mom’s ears and fingers were usually weighed down with stones of different shapes, colors, and carats, and each day she wore a different set depending on her clothes. But not Hattie. Hattie wore her simple ring proudly, and on her hand, it seemed much bigger and more precious than any jewelry my mom could ever afford.
My eyes went from her hand to her pale, white face. She wore very little makeup, but she didn’t need any to look pretty. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever known. Her long, brown hair was pulled back into a bun, and starting to grey at her temples. Her eyes were an almond brown and they always seemed to be smiling even if her mouth was not.
She was our housekeeper, though she was so much more than that. She had become more of a nanny than anything, though she was still responsible for cleaning our gigantic house. I always hated how big it was. There was definitely too much room for just me and my parents. Of course, my sister had lived with us before going away to college, but even then the house was too large. Sometimes, when my parents were on business trips, or taking a vacation without me, Hattie would have to stay the night to watch me. I thought that was a little much since I was fourteen and could take care of myself well enough, but I never complained. Hattie was always fun to be around, even if we were simply playing “Go Fish” in the parlor.
I glanced from her face and back to her ring one more time before looking back at my cards. “Hattie,” I asked, “How did you know when you were first in love? Got any fours?”
She pulled a card from her hand and gave it to me. “Oh,” she said letting out a chuckle. “Charles and I have been in love for twenty years. You think I remember when I first fell in love with him?”
“I know you do,” I answered with a grin.
Her white teeth showed in her wide smile. “Yes I do.” She looked away from her cards and past me as if she were daydreaming for a moment. “I was probably your sister’s age when a group of my friends asked me to go swimming in the pond out near Ridge Point, you know where I’m talking about?”
I nodded, having been there a few times myself.
“I didn’t know they were going to invite boys along,” she continued. She shook her head and laughed. “I don’t know what I was thinking. I knew I wouldn’t be swimming because I had never learned how. I just wanted to be with my friends. But the boys were there and they had a rope hanging from a branch that swung out over the pond. My friends wanted to impress them by showing them they weren’t afraid to swing on it. All of them did it except me. I wasn’t about to risk my life to impress some boy. That is…until Charles said I should try it.” She set her cards down on the table and took a sip of water from her glass. “Oh, I blushed when he talked to me. I think I actually swung on the rope just so he wouldn’t see my red face.”
“But you couldn’t swim,” I said.