“Come on, I’ll get you some chili. I want more anyway.”
He herds her off the stairs and toward the kitchen. I sneak out of his room and down the stairs. This house isn’t nearly as old as mine, but I’m careful to step on the outer edges of each step so they don’t creak. I can hear Ash and his mom talking as they move into the kitchen.
“Your dad and I wanted to talk to you about the memorial,” she says to him. “We understand why you said what you did, but we still think you should apologize to Pastor Mitchell.”
Ash is quiet. I pause behind the column at the bottom of the stairs.
“No,” Ash says finally.
Mrs. Whitaker lets out a fluttery little laugh. “What?”
“I’m not going to apologize to him. I don’t think he deserves an apology.”
“We didn’t raise you like this—”
“Like what?”
“To be so hurtful.”
“I’mbeing hurtful? The guy thinks suicide is a sin, Mom!”
“He doesn’t, and you would know that if you spoke to him—”
“Even if he doesn’t, you’re okay with him using Alissa as a cautionary tale? He doesn’t care that she’s dead. Nobody but us cares that she’s dead.”
The raw pain in his voice makes my stomach roll over. I shouldn’t be hearing this. I need to leave. Now. I creep for the front door and wait for Mrs. Whitaker to speak again before I turn the knob. When she does, her voice is thick with emotion.
“Other people do care, Ash....”
I close the door as softly as I can behind me, and then I’m off. I fly across the street, through the trees, back home.
Ash is right. We are the only ones who care. If there was anyone else in the same boat, they would understand why we’re acting the way we are.
They wouldn’t ask us for apologies.
Interstitial
WelcometoFenhallowWesley Jager
Oh—hi. Yeah, I’m Wes. Emery told you to find me? She said she was going to kick my butt? Yeah, that sounds like her. There’s still half an hour before we have to meet with the dean, and I wanted to get some training in.
Listen—you saw me dreamforming just now? Could you keep that between us? It’s not against the rules to practice outside of class. The teachers encourage it, actually. I just don’t want any of them to know that I can do it this well. The better you are at dreamforming, the faster they escalate you for missions, and the closer you get to fighting your doppelgänger... you get it, right?
My sister is in the class below us. My chances of surviving my doppelgänger aren’t great, but I’m trying to stick around as long as I can for her.
How about this: in exchange for you not telling anyone, I’ll give you some dreamforming tips. I promise it’ll be worth your while. Deal?
QUESTREWARDS
120XP
Novice Dreamforming
