Isle of Sanctum | The Aya Thrasher Chronicles | Book 1 |[Editing]

Chapter Seventy-Six

CHAPTER SEVENTY-SIX

AYA

After the memorial service, Emmy approached me. I hadn't seen her in awhile, but I was relieved that see was alright. The first thing I did was hug her. She tightened the embrace and I felt safe for the first time since this all started.

"My dreams are gone," I said pulling back.

"About that," she stuck her hand in the pocket of her jacket and put out a pouch. "This should take care of that problem." She took my hand and placed the pouch in my palm.

The sharp edges of the crystal protruded through the pouch and I immediately knew it was my dreamcatcher. I reached for the gold chain around my neck. It was still there, but the dreamcatcher wasn't.

"Where did you find it?" I asked.

"In that room, where everything happened. I was part of the clean-up crew," she explained. "Anyway, to new beginnings."

"To new beginnings," I replied with a smile.

After talking to Emmy, we all met up for a freeze shake. I was still feeling crummy and beat up, like I had the flu, although the sugar from the freeze shake helped to pep me up. Plus, I was surrounded by my friends. I didn't have to be miserable alone.

"What flavor you got there?" Brennan asked.

I fiddled with the straw swirling it around the multi-colored shake, metamorphosing the plethora of colors to turn a fuddled brown.

"Sunset special," I replied.

"Really?" He seemed surprised. "What flavors are in that?"

"The red is cherry. Blue is birthday cake I think. Green is mint chocolate chip and I think yellow is just vanilla with food coloring," I explained.

"Interesting," he said with a smile.

"But now it's just a mess," I said glancing down at the ugly shake.

"What do you think will happen now?" I rested my head on my hands and watched the little water droplets rolled down the glass. Sure, we had defeated the bad guys, but now what where we supposed to do? Go back to our old lives?

I noticed Lake giving Rayne a look – like they were silently sharing a secret.

"What?" I asked.

Lake was still glancing at Rayne, like she was trying to get an answer from her whether or not it was okay for her to tell me, Brennan, Issa, and Ace.

"I overheard Serina talking," Lake began. "They're going to throw some sort of party in our honor."

"A party?" I slammed my fist down on the table. I don't why that set me off, but it did. They were all making it sound like it was a happy time, but it wasn't. They were completely discarding the deaths and tragedies that occurred. We should still be in mourning, not celebrating. It was disrespectful.

"Calm down Aya, it's okay. You're invited too." Lake tried to put her hand on my shoulder, but I knocked it away.

"You all are so selfish!" I threw my hands up in the air and stood up. "You're all to blind to see this isn't a happy time," I yelled.

"We know—" Lake started.

I noticed that she was following me, so I stopped and turned around to face her. "What?"

"It's just a party to honor you. That's all," she said.

"To honor me?" I scoffed. That idea was almost laughable. I had never been honored in my whole life.

"Not you specifically, but all of us, especially you and Rayne," she explained.

"People are dead because of me, Aya, not you," Rayne spoke softly. "I'm the one who should be dead."

"Don't you ever say that! Their deaths aren't on you. Plus, if you weren't around, maybe more of us would be dead." I embraced Rayne.