Rachel Stanton and The Darkest Night

CHAPTER 11: WARNING

11. WARNING

How were we supposed to ask Augustus about the same, unanswered question? How were we supposed to know if a person is safe after he’s been saved?

I hoped to dream Augustus again that night and I would ask him about this thing. It just kept on building inside my head. It seemed as though it was the most difficult question to answer.

I slept at nine thirty but Katie was still pacing back and forth in my room, looking down at her feet. She seemed as though bothered and it kept me still awake for thirty minutes.

My eyes were about to close but Katie turned to the window and sat on it, glaring into the stars above.

“Why’re you still awake?” I asked, pretending that I just woke up. “It’s nearing ten in the evening and we should be slept.”

“I don’t sleep for now, Rachel,” she mumbled. “Remember that I’m your mother’s protector and also your protector,” she added, giving me a cute smile and she turned to the sky once more.

“What do you mean? You’re also protecting me?”

“Matilda’s going to give your mom the Curse of Death and then maybe she might change her plan and curse you as well, you know, maybe the both of you.”

“She can’t do that if you’re here, right? Besides Augustus and the Sprounds are battling her.”

He heaved a deep sigh. “Yeah, they are. But her powers must be the strongest of the kind now, you know, she’s killed too many Sprounds and Quarles.”

“Quarles?” There was a shock in my voice that made me sat up.

“Yeah,” she sighed, getting to her feet and pacing to my bed, “Augustus’ youngest brother was a Quarle, yet the most powerful Quarle between us all.”

He sat at the edge of the bed, patting the soft foam of the bed.

“You’d better sleep now, Rachel. You still have your school—I mean, we still have our school tomorrow.”

For a moment, I turned into my bed once more, closed my eyes and dreamed something different.

Katie was sitting on my swivel chair as I woke up in the morning. Something was clutched in her hands. And it took me a minute to realize it was my phone.

“What’s this?” she asked, half-lifting the phone and turning it as she peered at it briefer. “It’s very nice. Where did you get it?”

I sat up and gave her a cute, wide smile. I scoffed before I could open my mouth to answer.

“It’s a phone,” I muttered groggily. “It’s a kind of device for com-com-communicating,” I said as I yawned.

“Okay,” she said, nodding and peering at the phone closer than ever.

“What happened last night?” I asked curiously a moment after getting to my feet and heading for the bathroom. “How’re we supposed to know Matilda’s won and the Sprounds’ lost?”

“She’ll head here straight and do your mom already,” she said breathlessly, putting the phone beside my laptop and getting to her feet. “But it might take them a month or so to finish her. You know, her powers.”

It became as though clearer for me now. I would just enjoy myself in every moment while Matilda’s battling the Sprounds.

I marched into my bathroom and washed my face. And as I went out, a series of knock came from the door. Then a voice said, “Breakfast’s ready Rachel.”