A/N Hehehe there's a cliffhanger in this chapter. I'm laughing cause it's a brutal one. Don't hate me too much now :P
I didn’t have any dreams last night. I guess Eliza told me all she could. I walk over to Addison’s bed and poke her. “Get up,” I say loudly. She doesn’t move. “Addison.” I say louder. Still nothing. “Addison get up.” I say poking her again. This time she groans but doesn’t move. “Addison, get up. We have research to do.”
“I have sleep to do.” she mumbles. “Get. Up.”
“Do I have to?”
“Do you want to know what an Audientem is?”
“You win.”
Me ‘winning’ means that Addison gets five more minutes (more like half an hour) of sleep and I get to sit there waiting.
Eventually Addison gets up and sits next to me, yawning every five seconds.
“So what should we search?” I ask her.
“Maybe what Audientem means?”
“I guess that would work.”
I type in, ‘What does Audientem mean” in the search bar and read aloud my findings.
“It means to hear.”
“Well that certainly helps.” Addison says, sarcastically.
“It kind of does help. According to Eliza, an Audientem can hear spirits.”
“Should we write this down?” she asks me.
“It could help us. Go get a notebook.”
Once she gets one I write down the info we found and start on the other terms Eliza told me.
After we find out as much as we can, we write it down in Addison’s notebook:
Cupitor can see, hear, and feel spirits. They are very dangerous and very rare.
Audientem can only hear spirits. They are safe and common.
Mortalitas are hunters. They can’t communicate with spirits and are safe and common.
Virtus can warp their image and status. They are very dangerous and rare.
***
“Hey do you see that light or am I going nuts?” Addison asks me as we sit outside quizzing each other on social studies vocab for the test we’ll both have to make up when we return to school.
“Yes, Addison. That’s called the sun. Now who discovered New York?”
“No, really. Over there. In the woods.” she says persistently. “I’m going to ignore you and wait for your answer as to who discovered New York.”
“Abbi.”
“Addison.”
“I’m being serious.”
”So am I.”
“Please just look.”
“You didn’t look when I told you about the light I saw.”
“Yeah well this is different, Abbi. Just look.”
I look to please my sister and to my surprise, there is a yellow aura, just like the one that surrounded Eliza, weaving in and out of trees in the woods. “Do you see it?” she asks me quietly.
“Is it yellow?”
“You see it!”
“What is it, though?”
“I don’t know, you’re the almighty Cupitor you tell me.”
“How do you know it’s a spirit? Maybe it’s a light fragment being bent by the sun?”
“It wouldn’t be that big and it wouldn’t be moving as much as it is.”
“Should we go up to it?” I ask her, already knowing her answer.
“Yes.”
“You’re extremely adventurous and danger-prone.”
“And you love that about me.” she says, all fear diminishing from her voice instantly.
She drags me toward the slowly moving fog and before she can inspect it Eliza forms. She’s wearing a yellow dress matching the aura still fumbling around the forest and blue jeans. She stares at Addison and I, then begins to speak.
“Is this your sister, Abbigail?” she asks me. Addison is staring at her in awe. “Um yes. Her name is Addison.”
“I knew this, Abbigail.”
“If you don’t mind my asking, who the heck are you?” Addison interrupts Eliza.
“My name is Eliza, I believe Abbigail told you about me?”
For once in her life, Addison is speechless. “I.. Yes she told me about you.”
“Good. Now I don’t have to explain what I’m here for. If you would excuse us, Addison?” Eliza says, pointing back at the clearing we were sitting in a few minutes ago. She stands there, her feet planted in the ground. “She wants you to leave.” I whisper to her.
Addison slowly makes her way back to the clearing but doesn’t take her eyes off of us while Eliza speaks in hushed tones to me, like the Mortalitases that were hunting her are close by. For all I know, they could be.
“Abbigail, I understand you had a boyfriend named Nathanial Collins, correct?”
I rock back on my feet like I got slapped, I didn’t know that Eliza knew about Nathan. I nod my head, I can’t form words. “He was my apprentice a while ago.” she adds.
“He… He’s like you?”
“And you too.”
“What is he?”
“Before he died, he told me not to tell you. He has faith you can figure it out yourself.”
I look up at her, “He knew he was going to die?” I ask her quietly.
“This is a complicated world to live in, Abbigail. But he did ask me to show you something once he died.”
“What was it?”
She touches my hand and everything goes black.
