Connection

Chapter Twenty: Cliff

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Chapter Twenty: Cliff

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The three of them moved toward the seating area near the fireplace, Cliff bubbling with anxiety. Grez sat heavily, his eyes darting between the two of them.

"All right, try not to make this too messy," Grez said, knowing perfectly well that Cliff would spit out what was in the forefront of his mind then tell the rest of the story sloppily and disjointed.

"To start, the mayor's been acting really weird," Cliff said. "Not too long after you left, we were leaving a class we turned and there was a huge mess, as if someone had exploded the hallway. The mayor was on the other side and he said he came to see me. He said he'd go around and meet me in my classroom. Darkarrow made us clean it up and when we were done, the mayor wasn't waiting for me. I caught up to him hurrying away from the school.

"I talked to him and he didn't seem happy to see me. He asked if I was all right because of my assessment and then quickly left. Just a few days later, a festival came and we went before school. The mayor was there and he pulled me aside and talked to me, telling me about how bad he felt for blowing me off and how people would be looking into what happened when they were doing with the Charlotte business—"

"Is she still missing?" Grez interjected and Cliff nodded.

"He kind of talked circles, but he kept saying how what happened to me and what I was explaining has never happened before—"

"What did you say happened during the assessment?"

"The truth," Cliff answered and then groaned. "I'm not sure what I was thinking. I should have just said I was tired and drained."

"We'll see. That could still be the case. Anyway, continue."

"Well, after that there was nothing strange for a few days. Oh, wait! Just after the talk with the mayor, a young boy who I gave a tour to the day of my assessment said he had to talk to me. I met with him and he started talking about these names he sometimes heard in his dreams. Said it came with a flash of hair. I told him I'd ask you for him, but don't give me an answer about it now. There's more to it.

"Anyway, there were a few things that from my first dream that I was wondering about. I decided to make an appointment with a teacher to ask about some spells I'd never heard of. Then, I had another dream like the first one I—"

"When?"

"It was the day before I was supposed to talk about the spells. It would have been October 22. But anyway, I didn't have a full dream because I slept through my alarm. My mom woke me up, but as I was going to school, the same kid, Tony, who told me about these names asked me a question. He was wondering if Charlotte Swiftless had green eyes and when I said yes he told me he saw her eyes. She was the Charlotte he'd been hearing about.

Next to him, Jean's eyes were widening. This was the first time she'd heard the full story; the first time he explained everything that had happened. Grez opened his mouth, but Cliff stopped him.

"Then, the day after when I was supposed to meet with her, I decided to come to the cabin. I was wondering whether you were back so I could talk to you about this; clearly something was going on that I needed help on. That was when Jean followed me here. I told her a bit, but not the full thing. She doesn't know a lot of this.

"So after that, when we saw you weren't here, we both went back to our houses. Just a few minutes after, there were screams. My mother and I went toward them and it turned out that they were coming from the school grounds. We went on, and there was a huge fire. It stretched really far. We moved closer to the center and reached a group of fighters. Inside the fire was the woman who caused all of it. We tried to fight her, but it didn't fully work.