Descending Star

SARCOPHAGUS

Alice stood frozen in paralysis, on Ben's first floor landing, at a complete loss as to what Colleen had meant by her last words. Only Edythe could free Ben from the Volturi, the place where he would surely die otherwise, if by mischance if not malice, and Alice wondered if Colleen had meant that Edythe could be found there.

Did Colleen mean that Edythe was a captive in Volterra herself, already? If so, why did she need to be found? And why had Alice not foreseen it? She had been seeing Edythe and Ben together, with absolute certainty, so why did she have to find Edythe and take her to where she already was, to rescue a boy whom she was already with?

The paradox froze her in place, and she felt as though her head were about to shatter.

Colleen had called herself Apothegm and Sphinx together, when Alice had exhorted her to stop telling riddles and give the plain truth, unencumbered. And yet, the plain truth, Edythe is in Ben's tomb, presented the greatest riddle of all. She knew that she had to think outside of the paradox, to see from around or above it, to understand it fully.

Edythe couldn't possibly be in Volterra already. It had to mean something else.

Then, as she stood rooted on point, an event took her completely by surprise: a knock on the door. She stared in terror at the door. She had sensed no one approaching. This was either a complete stranger, an immortal, or both.

Or perhaps neither. Another paradox, yet this one mercifully provided its answer.

The person behind the door knocked again and then called out, "Ben? Zoey? Are you home?"

Alice flung the door open and beheld a sullen eighteen year old girl who slouched in a gray t-shirt and khaki vest covered with manufacturer bling.

"Leah Clearwater?"

"Oh. Alice. It's you." She shrugged backward at the driveway, toward the alabaster Aston Martin. "Nice ride. Are you guys home for the fall semester?"

"Forget that! How are you here? How– I didn't see"–

"Oh, that's right. You're supposed to be some kind of fortune teller, aren't you?"

"What are you doing here?"

"Looking for Ben and Zoey. I'm sort of supposed to be watching them. They shacked up last night– hey, I hope that's cool, I mean, I know Ben and your sister had a thing, but Edythe's dumped him or whatever"–

"Edy didn't dump him."

"Listen," Leah urged, "I'm not judging, and I don't care. I'm just supposed to watch them, since you guys all bugged out to the Caribbean or whatever for the summer. But I kind of lost track of them since this morning. You know where they are?"

Alice explained that they had gone off hiking somewhere. "And they also told me you were cool with that," Alice accused. "They said the woods were safe, because you and the rest of the dogs were playing sentry out there. Good job, watching them."

Leah scowled at her feet, laughed with the irony, and muttered, "I thought they were putting me on. You mean they really went hiking? You know, I don't get them at all. They've got two houses all to themselves, all day, and they're out in the woods?"

Alice forced herself to remain calm. "Ben and Zoey are only friends."

"Hey, like I said, I don't care. Listen, if you don't know where they are, I have to go. Try to pick up their trail. They're probably all right, but after the scare with that raven haired leech out at the Delta last night, we're not taking any chances."