Insight

Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

When I followed Landen inside I did sense my dad approaching. Landen reached for the door just as my father knocked. Landen then pulled the door wide open, and my father was standing there with a bright smile on his face.

"Morning, Jason," Landen said, extending his arm as an invitation.

"I was just coming to see how the two of you were fee-" my father stopped in mid-sentence. He was staring at Landen's arm, then his eyes quickly looked over Landen's entire body, then over mine.

"Come in, Jason," Landen said again.

Landen led my father into the living room, which was beside the front door. My father quickly looked us over again while reaching for Landen's arm and inspecting it closer.

"How did you heal so fast?" Dad asked.

"I don't know. It was gone this morning," Landen took a seat on the large tan couch in the center of the room.

My father walked over to one of the matching chairs that faced the couch and sat down, still completely astonished. "Both of you are healed. Last night I could see damage, painful—slow healing damage. I've been up all night trying to figure out how it was possible."

"Have you seen my dad and Livingston today?" Landen asked, trying to change the subject.

"Livingston went to Esterious to see if he could find a way to the girls, and Ashten is helping Aubrey get ready for tonight."

"Is Mom okay?" I asked.

"She's fine. Trying to stay busy and positive. She's worried about your friends." Dad gave me the same gravity filled stare he aways did when he need me to pull my shoulders back and weather through something. "It was an accident. Josh and Chase said that a storm came quick. Olivia and Monica were knocked out of the boat. They said that Olivia would've drowned if Drake hadn't pulled her out of the water."

"What are you going to tell Sharon?" I asked.

"Sharon knows there was an accident. The Coast Guard told her that Monica was on a boat with Chase and Josh and that they couldn't find her. Right now, she wants to believe that Monica is just missing. She'll say goodbye when she's ready."

"Where do they think Olivia, Hannah, and Jessica are?"

"They don't know. I altered a manifest for a cruise ship that showed the three of them docking in the Florida Keys. It was all I could think to do at that moment. That'll buy us some time to get them home safely, though"

"I thought you said Chase and Josh saw Drake take the girls. Wouldn't they have told everyone? Did they see the string?"

"There is an herb that grows in Chara. It erases recent memory. I gave them the herb to help them with their misery. Both of them blamed themselves for not reaching Monica." I could feel grief from my dad. "Now, the last memory they have is of arriving in Florida. The doctors will assume that their memory loss is due to shock."

"We have to go and get them," I said, standing.

"Willow," Landen said. "They aren't in danger now."

"Landen's right," Dad said. "Drake wants you, and he knows that if he hurts them you'll never come to him."

"Why does he want me?" I demanded.

The color left my dad's face. He glanced to Landen, then to me. He stood. "I'm hoping that one of the girls will appear as an image to you," he said deciding he didn't have an answer he wanted to give me about Drake.