Ruby

Chapter 16

I stay with Cinda all day, and into the night. David gave her the green mushy stuff out of the bottle, and it seems to be helping. Some natural color is returning to her skin. I continue to dab the cloth against her forehead, trying to keep her fever from returning. David comes into the room.

"Ron, we need to talk," He tells me.

My heart begins to pound. "Oh? About what?" I ask, even though I know what he's going to say.

"About what happened back there in the prison. You made something happen. The guards were magically thrown away from us, and then we come home, and Cinda's not better, she's worse. I... I just don't know what to think," he tells me. He sounds worried and angry at the same time.

Realization hits me in the stomach. "You... you think that I made Cinda sick on purpose."

He folds his arms across his chest. "Well, it certainly looks like that, now doesn't it?" He says. His voice has lost its sliver of kindness and warmth; now it is vicious and bitter. And that bitterness is directed at me.

"David, Cinda is my best friend. I would never do anything to hurt her. I promise."

"Then what did?" His eyes pierce coldly into mine. The way he looks at me hurts, like someone is slowly driving a butterknife into my stomach.

"I don't know! I don't know what moved the guards, either! All I know is that they were in one place one second, another the next. It's like I have strange powers that I can't control!" I yell, half out of anger, half out of sadness that he doesn't trust me.

His eyes soften. "So you have them too."

"David, what are you talking about?" I ask him, growing uneasy.

"Remember how when we were rescuing Cinda, and I knew exactly where we were going, even though I hadn't been anywhere in the prison except my cell?" he asks.

"Yes, of course. It was... strange."

"That's because I had seen it before. But not in person," he said, staring down at the floorboards. "Sometimes I get these dreams. Visions, to be exact. I can't explain them, I just know that they started a little while after I got out. They usually happen at night, like a dream, but this one was different. It happened during the day. I just got this huge headache, and then I was back in the prison. I was taken to Cinda's cell, and, um... " David faltered, as if he didn't want to say the next few words. "I saw her die, Ron. I saw her die, " he whispers.