FALL (DIMENSION Series #1)

CHAPTER 37

I couldn't stand it one moment longer. The way Isabelle Bree was questioning me. The piles of cinders all around us. How they seemed to mean something but remained too mysterious to be of any real help. How Isabelle implied that the things I'd discover about Derek would be of an unpleasant nature.

      "I already know what I know," I said to Isabelle and she got quiet. She seemed stunned by my sudden boldness.

     I wanted to be reunited with Derek. I had to be with him right now. Even though I'd never run into his arms before, I knew exactly how it'd be—how it would feel to be held in his embrace, to have his muscular arms wrapped around me. I was suddenly so overcome with emotion that I seemed to go weak with it. I wanted to sit down. To lean back against a tree and to close my eyes. I wanted time to catch my breath and to reinvent the story. Our story.

     Some things hadn't yet happened to us and they still had to. And I had to do all the right things now to ensure that they'd still be possible. Derek still had to kiss me. And not just on the cheek. I needed a real kiss from him. And not just one kiss, many kisses. I wanted him to kiss me in the woods and I wanted him to kiss me underneath the tree in our yard, and in my bedroom. And in my car and in his car. And I wanted him to reach for my hand and hold it as we walked outside. Into sunrises and sunsets.

     I wanted to go back in time—to when he left my house the night before—right before my dad appeared. I wanted to rewind to that moment and I wanted to make him stay. Even if it meant that we'd have been discovered by my dad. Looking back, I knew what I should have done. I should have reached for his arm and pulled him back and made him stay there with me under the tree. I would have dealt with the consequences of what had happened. Anything would have been better than this. His absence and the lack of news about him. How he just seemed to be missing all of a sudden. I pictured his dark hair and his green eyes and his perfectly chiseled face and his lean, loose body that moved with the ease of a wild cat.

    Isabelle's arm brushed mine as she walked past me and I realized that I'd stopped walking. My lack of movement seemed to be fueling Isabelle. She was taking big steps in her amped-up boots. She was different than before. More confident. Full of purpose. She wants to be the one to find him, I thought. The first one. Jealousy flooded me. I felt it bubbling up in insides and pictured it coursing in my veins. It was bright green.

     Isabelle was in for a surprise. I wasn't going to surrender. I was going to fight for what I wanted. This wasn't over yet. This story hadn't yet ended. I could still give it the ending I wanted. I wasn't going to lose Derek. Not to whoever took him away from here. And certainly not to Isabelle Bree.

     I sped up and kept pace with her, staying just one step behind her. She was a girl who knew how to rock aggressive-looking boots, I'd give her that. And just because I wasn't part of the popular crowd at school, Isabelle assumed that I knew nothing. She discounted me because I didn't traipse around in her circle. But she was wrong. I knew some things. I knew how to dance around my room in the twilight with Estella. And I knew all the right songs—not just the ones that were popular this month or this year. And I could walk by myself in the woods for hours. Maybe those things mattered more than eating lunch with the right crowd.

     I bit down on my lip and noticed that my hands were balled into fists. I was suddenly flooded with energy. I had to be the heroine in this story. The one who pulled Derek back from wherever he'd gone. He was in danger. And no one could save him but me. That's what I wanted to believe, anyway. In my fantasy I saw myself with my hair loose and windblown and determination etched on my face. My right arm outstretched angled toward the sky. I was offering my hand to him. I was offering myself. The essence of me. The only thing we as human beings real had to offer each other. Pieces of who we were.

     I suddenly felt hot and slightly dizzy. My face felt flushed but it went deeper than that. Something had descended on me. I could feel it in my bones and on my skin. Sudden heat like the sun on your skin after coming through the clouds. Sparks of electricity. And then it came to me.

     "He's near", I blurted out.

     It was the only explanation. My body had previously had this reaction to his touch. Whenever he touched me, he seemed to rouse my body from a kind of slumber. He made it felt alive and full of fire. And now if seems my reactivity to him had expanded. It wasn't merely limited to his touch. I didn't even need to see him. I only needed to feel his presence for my skin to catch on fire. In his absence, things had deepened between us, it seemed. I now felt these sparks of electricity from him even when he wasn't physically touching me.

     Isabelle spun around and glared at me. And Charlie walked up to both of us. I could see surprise in his eyes.

     "What did you say?" Isabelle asked, her eyes were narrowed like before, pointed at my face like two laser beams that wanted to slice me open.

      "Derek is near," I said. I was looking at Charlie now. I was hoping he'd believe me. Somebody needed to.

      Charlie nodded slowly. I could see him registering my flushed face and he seemed to understand. Maybe he's like Derek, I thought. Maybe his intuition ran deeper than it did for most people. Maybe he was able to decipher the world without too many clues.

      "And you know this, how?" Isabelle asked and her voice was thick with irritation. I turned to face her and saw her rage. It was undisguised—blazing in her eyes and caught up in her smirk.

      "I just know," I mumbled.

      The heat on my skin and dizziness in my head intensified. I had to focus to remain upright. Despite my discomfort I also felt a flash of relief. Derek was here. And soon I'd be seeing him again. Charlie was saying something but I couldn't make out his words. There suddenly was a loud sound—like a thousand old church bells chiming all at once. My ears were still ringing when everything went black.

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