The Guardian Wars: Part One #Wattys2016

Chapter Sixteen

 That night, I had my nightmare again, only that time was it different. I was startled, like always, to the sound of a loud boom. I began to panic as smoke filled my room. Just as I opened my mouth to scream I heard a voice in my head. It was Rowan's.

"What do you know?" he asked. He said it over and over. As the flames started crackling and popping outside my door, he said it louder. Smoke was swirling around my head, making it hard to breathe, but still he asked the question.

"What do you know?" he asked louder. He had started shouting it at me.

"I know that I love you," I shouted back, just as the window of my room shattered. The cool wind rushed in, and a little boy flew in soon after.

"And what else?" Rowan's voice asked as the little boy rushed to my crib with tears in his eyes.

"Thank God!" the little boy shouted, lifting me up. He pressed me to his chest and kissed my head.

"Thank God you're alive!" he gasped. Not a second later, he leapt back out of the window with me still clenched to his body. As he ran down the incinerated street of a once populated neighborhood, I could see trees and small houses burning on either side of us. He dodged limbs as they fell from trees, bringing flames down with them. He shouted as a fiery limb wrapped around his ankle, but still he ran. Suddenly we were standing in my bedroom in my apartment. Now grown, Rowan was holding me to his chest. I was wearing my red Opera dress, and he was in his tuxedo.

"And what else?" he asked as he pressed his forehead to mine.

"I know that you love me," I whispered back. He smiled, and then he vanished.

Mabel and I both woke up close to noon, and stumbled around her apartment getting dressed. Mabel loaned me a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, so I didn't have to straddle her bike the whole ride home in a dress. I had asked her a lot of questions, most of them about how Rowan and Clive had become Guardians and what had happened after the fire. She had refused to give me any more information, and instead had insisted that I discuss it with the woman whom I had believed to be my mother, Margaret. I was moving slowly, but I was eager to get in contact with her and find out more about my past. Everything Travis had said at dinner made sense now. Of course I was supposed to fit in and look like I belonged. Of course he believed that I should be grateful and behave accordingly. I couldn't stick out or make waves. High society would have never accepted me if they had known who I really was. Mabel made us breakfast, but I could tell she was eager to get out of her apartment.

"Nox was pretty cool," I said, trying to distract her. The story of how we got to where we were seemed to weigh heavily on her, but she still smiled slightly at my comment.

"I'm glad you liked it. We probably won't get a chance to go back," she said as she picked up our empty plates.

"How long do you think it will be until Rowan and Clive come to get us?" I asked, as I stood and began helping her wash the small pile of dishes. She shrugged and tossed a dishtowel at me.

"Hopefully, we will hear something this week. You should start getting yourself ready to leave just in case," she said with a nervous smile.

Soon we were packed up and headed back to my apartment. Summer was coming to an end and a cool fall breeze had picked up. I rested my head on Mabel's shoulder and let the fresh air whip against my face as we drove. The Sector looked exactly the same as it had the evening before, but so much about my life have changed overnight. The only thing that I could depend on being constant, was Rowan's love for me. I knew then, more than ever that he would always love and protect me. I wanted talk to him so badly about everything I had just found out. It had been over a month since we had seen each other, and I just wanted to touch him. I wanted to feel his arms around me just one more time. The trip back to my apartment didn't seem to take nearly as long as it had the night before, and before I knew it we were pulling up to the front doors of my building.