Who am I?

Nadia

The next day we were awake and the most rested we had been in weeks. We were ready to start looking for Nadia. "So the next step would be to re-trace the same steps Nadia took on the way to your Grandparents'?"  I shrugged, I wasn't used to taking the leadership role. Maybe that was why I was so uncomfortable with being the spirit.

"Sounds good to me. Any other suggestions?" I asked turning to the rest of the group. "Should we go by car or by foot?" Jason asked. "I'd say half by car half by foot." Zoe said, "If I go by foot then I would be able to feel her presence more accuratelly if we came close to her." 

"Lilly, you haven't been able to contact her?" I asked; she frowned and shook her head. "I've tried everything, dream walking, astral projection, anything to contact her but I just can't find her. Either she's always awake or something's blocking me out." I narrowed my eyes as worry creeped into my stomach. 

"Okay," Gavin said pulling out his notebook. "Let's break up into teams, we can retrace her steps with one team on foot and the other in the car. When we're coming back it can be vice versa. We should also look around town just to see if she's there anywhere." He wrote down this plan and then jotted down something else down, his face creased in concentration.

"I've got Zoe, Myself, and Caleb on foot and Jason, Anthony and Lilly in the car. These teams will be reversed on the way back. We can all be on foot in the town because it's only small." Another worry twisted its way into my mind. 

"Okay, but what about the imps or Dakota?" Gavin frowned and then jotted down something hastily on his notebook. "Considering everything, the probability of Dakota or the imps showing up are low. There's been no signs of Dakota for weeks now and the imps were mainly around the cave. I did the math, and numbers hardly ever lie."

This put my mind at ease. Gavin may be absent minded and unable to sit still but he was really, really good at math and when he calculated something, you were sure he was right.

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We wandered on foot and Zoe picked up absolutely nothing. The whole way to the town was silent and dissappointing. We met up with the team in the car about ten minutes after they pulled into town. "Anything?" Anthony asked. "Nothing." Zoe shook her head. "We should check my grandparents' I'll get the keys off their neighbour. She's been taking care of the house while they stay with us." 

The town was very small and everyone knew each other, of course most of the people who lived there were gifted but there were normal people like Gavin living there as well. Most of these people weren't even aware of the gifted people right under their noses. However what I saw before me took my breath away and not in a good way.

What was once a lively and busy town was now empty and quiet. The familiar homes were now seemingly empty and some were even boarded up. No children played in the streets here, no teens to be seen at the skate park. The convenience store's window was replaced with plywood and the sign permanently displayed as closed.

We walked cautiously down the empty street in awe of the ghost town. "This is worse than the rest of them." Anthony said, his face was as white as a ghost and his voice was hoarse. "Zoe patted him on the back. "I'm sure your Parents and brothers are okay. For all we know Dakota's only been affecting communities in Nova Scotia."

This wasn't true and we all knew it. He smiled sadly. "You're sweet for trying, but things were getting bad when I left to go to our school. Mom and Dad sent all of us off to schools out of the state." "Once everything is over and... I do what I.. need to do, we'll go back and check on them. I promise." What a hard thing to say.

"Thanks guys. I'll try to call them tonight." He said and Zoe froze. "Wait, I feel something. It's different than everyone else in the town." She turned around and took off running. We tore off after her but she was fast. She sprinted down the road to a part where the woods were thick.

"It's here, it's here." She said out of breath. We heard crunching in the woods and dove into the ditch across the road to wait for what was coming. I could faintly see a figure through the trees. Whoever it was, it wasn't an imp but who would be stumbling around in the woods?

When I looked up again my heart swelled. Nadia climbed out onto the road I wanted nothing more but to run over to her and hug her but this could have been a trap. I signaled everyone to wait. She looked like she had been through hell though, her light brown hair was matted with leaves, her fair skin was coloured with bruises, her feet were bare and battered and she had a limp. After a bit of looking around, she started to walk down the road into the direction of the town.

I figured it was safe I signaled everyone that it was okay and then  we climbed out of the ditch. I couldn't hold myself back any longer. "NADI!" I called and ran towards her. She spun around with horror painting her face. "CALEB NO! RUN!" I stopped just feet away from her. 

"What? what are you talking about?" I said. She looked around furtively her right eye was swollen shut. "You all need to turn back now!" I moved towards her. "Caleb she's right." Zoe said looking panicked. "She's very afraid right now." Nadia looked at Zoe and nodded. "Yes, just please! it's a tra-" "AHH!" Gavin exclaimed in pain.

I whirled around to see what happened when in a split second something splashed onto my face and my skin was set on fire. I dropped to the ground in seconds, I couldn't feel anything but the horrible pain on my face.

All I could hear was Nadi crying. I wanted to help her but I couldn't open my eyes. There was so much pain and then it started fading, I was going to pass out. I fought against the overwhelming feeling at first but then the stinging and burning grew so intense, I welcomed it.