The 'Naturals: Awakening (Episodes 17-20 -- Season 1) (Young Adult Serial) Read online

  HAILEY

  K.C. Neal

  Episode Seventeen

  HAILEY HAD DIED EVERY night for the past several weeks. Ever since she and Adrian barely escaped the mine, she had dreams of Jay. Or dark, swirling water. Sometimes both. The scenario changed, but one thing did not. At the end, she always died. It was like living a terrifying video game and she couldn’t figure out how to make it past the first level.

  Last night it’d been a swimming dream. It started out nice enough—a summer day at the lake—kids playing volleyball on the beach while others rowed kayaks or floated on tubes. Hailey was swimming parallel to the shore, her hands cutting efficient strokes through the water. Then, sunlight grew weak and the sky turned an ugly purplish-gray. She stopped swimming and treaded water, dread welling up through her as everyone on the beach and in the lake also stopped and looked skyward.

  Suddenly there was a flicker of movement in the water. Hailey looked down, struggling to focus on something under the surface. A face. Jay, grinned up at her. A pale arm darted up and cold fingers wrapped around her ankle, jerking her down. She tried to inhale a breath of air before the surface of the lake swallowed her, but she sucked in a few drops of water and it was all she could do to hold in the cough that began to spasm in her lungs.

  She tried to kick out of his grip, her free foot smacking against his arm, her arms waving in wild, desperate strokes that did nothing to slow Jay’s pace to the bottom. She watched the light above her dim as she sank.

  Her lungs burned. She couldn’t hold her breath any longer. A few bubbles escaped her lips, and then she felt the convulsive, deadly inhalation of cold water. For maybe half a breath it felt okay, and she had just enough time to wonder whether in this dream she could breathe water. And then panic. She took another deeper, reflexive breath of liquid into her lungs, even as her mind screamed at her body to stop. Spots bloomed before her eyes. She stopped struggling.

  Usually in scary dreams of falling or crashing or drowning, people wake up before impact or sucking water, before that final moment of doom, of knowing that this is it. Death. But not these dreams. No, these dreams always went a step further, holding Hailey in their grip until life leaked out of her like water swirling down a drain. Every night, she died in her dreams.

  The weird thing was, it made her less afraid. She’d died so many different ways, death no longer felt like a dark horror lurking out there, waiting to claim her. Sure, every time it was terrifying. But on some level it was like anything else: the more she experienced it the more familiar it became.

  Hailey watched the glowing blue numbers on her digital clock as the time switched from 6:14 to 6:15, and the alarm blared. She smacked the snooze button on the third beep, and then turned off the alarm. She probably didn’t need to set an alarm any more. Her death dreams woke her at exactly six in the morning every day. And it wasn’t like there was any danger of falling back to sleep.

  She grabbed her phone from the nightstand just as it vibrated with a text from Adrian:

  How did you go this time?

  She chuckled grimly. Adrian seemed to have a morbid fascination with her dreams, and it was nice, in a way, to be able to tell someone about them. She typed a message back.

  Taking a lovely swim, Jay grabbed me and dragged me down to the bottom. Inhaled some lake. The end.

  A moment later, Adrian sent another message.

  Aaand now I will never swim in the lake again. But I believe this dream symbolizes your deep desire to accompany me to the Monster Ball. Or, you know, possibly your repressed anxiety over the fact that your ex-boyfriend tried to kill you. Really could be either.

  Hailey laughed and pushed back the covers. Maybe this wasn’t something they should be joking about. But it was either that or go nuts. She’d take inappropriate joking over insanity any day.

  She replied: LOL

  Adrian texted: At least you’ve been practicing your… you know… and you’re getting pretty good. So if you do see him again….

  She responded: Yeah. But I can only do those things when I’m angry, it seems like. Not very helpful….

  She carried her phone to the bathroom and it buzzed again in her hand.

  So? You going with me to the Monster Ball or what?

  Hailey grinned and texted back: Sure, that would be great. You’re going to love my costume.

  Later that morning, Hailey pulled up in front of Kristin’s house and honked. Her friend trotted out, carrying a bright yellow designer purse and a large pink travel mug with steam escaping from the top.

  “Morning beautiful, love the way you did your hair,” Kristin said as she settled into the passenger seat of the Mini.

  Hailey smoothed a hand over the barrette pinned above her ear. “Really? Thanks.” She’d left her hair natural—curly and a little wild.

  “Yeah, you should do that more often. Curly hair says, ‘I’m carefree and awesome.’” Kristin sipped from her mug.

  Hailey couldn’t help laughing. She felt anything but carefree these days. But there was a strange undercurrent of exhilaration to her new life. Maybe it had something to do with coming back from the dead every morning. Or all the time she was spending with Adrian, who, now that she thought about it, actually was “carefree and awesome.” She turned left at the end of Kristin’s street, heading toward Silverwood High.

  “You hear anything about Jay?” Kristin asked, and the mood in the car sobered.

  Hailey shook her head. “Huh-uh.”

  “It’s just so weird. No one seems to know where he is. His parents are gone, too. Marissa keeps calling and going by the house.”

  Hailey wasn’t sure what to say. No one had seen Jay or Mr. and Mrs. Barton since the day before Jay had nearly killed her and Adrian. She’d be lying if she said she hoped Jay would return soon.

  Marissa had grown frantic when Jay disappeared and stopped answering calls and texts. She’d even called the police, but apparently there was nothing they could do because there was no crime involved, as far as anyone knew.

  Kristin shrugged. “Well, the Bartons certainly have the moolah to just up and leave if they wanted to. You’d think Jay would at least say goodbye if they went on a trip or something.”

  “Yeah, you’d think so,” Hailey said. She turned into the parking lot at Silverwood High. “Who knows. Basketball tryouts are in November. I guess if Jay misses that we’ll know something’s really wrong.”

  She found a parking spot just as the first bell rang. She and Kristin headed toward the main entrance, pulling their jackets tighter around them to ward off the chilly morning air.

  “See you at lunch!” Kristin waved and took the stairs to the second floor two at a time.

  Hailey passed one of the school counselors, a pretty woman who was new at Silverwood High. She’d canceled her last appointment with Kathy. Something about her therapist made her uneasy and hesitant to confide in her. Maybe she should talk to the new school counselor instead? No, that idea didn’t sit right either. She had that “I’m cool, you can talk to me” demeanor, but it was forced. Adults always thought kids couldn’t see through that.

  After she made it through her first two classes and slipped into her seat in Mr. Reed’s third period econ class, she sighed with relief. This class was a bright spot in the middle of the morning.

  “Hey.” Adrian smiled at her and set his notebook on the desk in front of hers.

  “Good morning, Buddy,” Hailey responded, studiously straight-faced.

  Adria
n had traded spots with Buddy, the guy assigned to the seat in front of Hailey’s, and legally-blind Mr. Reed hadn’t caught on yet.

  “So what’s this mysterious costume you have for the Monster Ball?” Adrian half-turned in his chair to talk to her.

  Hailey grinned and shook her head. “You’ll just have to wait and see.”

  “Storm from X-Men?”

  Hailey laughed “Nope. That would have been a good one, though.”

  “Callisto?”

  “No superheroes. That’s your only hint. What’s your costume?”

  “No way,” Adrian said. “I’m not telling if you’re not.”

  The second bell rang and Adrian turned around as Mr. Reed’s assistant passed out graded quizzes from the previous week.

  “Have lunch with us today,” Hailey whispered at Adrian’s back.

  He nodded, then glanced over his shoulder and winked.

  She’d been nervous about bringing him into her group of friends, but she’d had no reason to worry. He got along with everyone, and he’d made quite a few other friends, too. He’d joined the ski and snowboard club and trained with them on the weekends, and started playing guitar in a band made up of kids she didn’t know well. She admired his ability to be so at ease in a new school without conforming to any one group.

  At lunch she found Kristin at their usual table.

  “Adrian is coming, too.” Hailey couldn’t keep the grin off her face.

  “Wooo,” Kristin teased. “That’s the third time this week. Must be love.”

  “Ha ha.” Hailey gave her a wry look. “He asked me to go to the Monster Ball with him.”

  Hailey sat down and Kristin grabbed Hailey’s forearm with both her hands. “What? When did this happen?”

  “This morning.” Hailey giggled in spite of herself.

  “Well it’s not the same as an invite to prom or one of the other formals, but still, this is big. Your first dance with someone besides . . . well, you know.”

  “Yeah, I’m sure it will be fun.”

  Kristin tilted her head to study the male students walking by as if studying an imaginary menu. “I might end up going with Johnny Garcia. Maybe Bryce Wilson. Heck, maybe I’ll just say yes to both of them and see what happens.”

  Hailey laughed. “You haven’t given them an answer yet? The dance is only a few days away.”

  “I know, I’m evil.” Kristin tossed her hair over her shoulder and gave Hailey a wicked grin.

  The Triplets sat down across from them, and several other kids joined their table. When Adrian arrived, he had to squeeze between Hailey and Penelope. He greeted everyone with an easy smile, and even traded jokes with Dennis Carver, who Hailey always thought was impossible to talk to. Take now, for instance. Dennis had just stuffed half a hamburger into his mouth and was smiling around the table with lettuce sticking between his lips and ketchup dripping down his chin. How sixth grade.

  Adrian sat next to her until he finished eating, then stood near the wall where the other guys had congregated, joking and talking about sports.

  Hailey always avoided the end of the table where Marissa sat. Partly out of habit, but also because Marissa’s poor-me act was just getting old. She and Jay hadn’t even been together two weeks when he disappeared, but she was acting like a grieving widow and milking it for all it was worth.

  When Hailey accidentally made eye contact with her, Marissa gave her a narrow-eyed glare. What the heck? Hailey turned back to the Triplets, who were describing their Halloween costumes. They were going as the three graces.

  “What’s everyone else going as?” Denise pointed at the girls around her.

  “Angel,” Kristin said, and they all snickered. She grinned and cast her eyes upward, innocently batting her lashes.

  “Malibu Barbie,” Marissa said. She sniffed and looked down. She probably had expected Jay to go as Ken. Hailey started to roll her eyes and then caught herself, turning her eyeroll into a glance across the room.

  Denise continued around the girls at the table. When it was Hailey’s turn, she arched an eyebrow and shook her head.

  “Oh come on, everyone else said!” Denise cajoled, and the others joined in.

  “Okay, okay.” Hailey held up her hands to silence them. She took a deep breath. “I’m going as . . . Death.”

  They all stared at her for a moment. “You mean, like, the Grim Reaper?” Tiffany asked with a frown.

  Hailey nodded and sipped from her bottle of Vitamin Water Zero.

  “That doesn’t sound very hot,” Tiffany not-so-subtly whispered to Erin.

  Hailey hid her grin behind the bottle.

  Hailey scrutinized her ghostly face in the mirror. She’d spent a full hour giving her face a shimmery-white sheen and darkening the areas around her eyes and under her cheekbones, and shadowing her lids with a couple different shades of deep, sparkly maroon. Yesterday she’d gotten her nails done with black glitter polish.

  She’d kept quiet when Tiffany and the other girls had commented on her costume idea. Little did they know that Hailey had in mind a version of the Grim Reaper that none of them would have imagined.

  She stepped in front of the full-length mirror. She’d ordered a black hooded cloak online, and used her sister’s old sewing machine to hem it up to mini-skirt length. A translucent silver sash cinched the cloak at her waist. She wore sheer black tights with flame designs that flared up her legs, and black patent platform heels. The costume and makeup were awesome, but the finishing touch was the scythe. She’d decorated the handle with white rhinestones, and the edge of the blade with a row of ruby-red ones.

  When she opened the front door to Adrian, he gave a low whistle. “Death never looked so good.” He grinned at her. He was dressed as a zombie.

  “Nice scabs,” Hailey said. “Hm, we’re quite the morbid couple.”

  When they neared the school gym, Hailey got a text from Kristin: Help me put on my angel wings, PLEASE. I’m at the end of the side lot.

  “Kristin needs me to help her with her costume,” Hailey said as Adrian parked on the street near the gym. “Want to go inside and save us spots at a table?”

  “Sure. Hurry, though. Looks like it’s going to rain any second, and it would be a shame to let all that work go to waste.” He raised his eyebrows and eyed her costume.

  He squeezed her hand, and they both got out of the car. Adrian headed toward the gym entrance, and Hailey went around the corner of the building to a narrow side parking lot.

  Kristin, the Triplets, Marissa, Penelope, and a few guys milled around at the end of the lot. Bryce was smoking a cigarette, and a flask was passed between a couple of guys Hailey didn’t know well.

  “Whoa, hello sexy!” Erin called when she spotted Hailey.

  Everyone turned to stare as she approached, and someone catcalled.

  “You look totally amazing, Hailey,” Penelope said. She stumbled a little over the tail of her mermaid costume as she threw her arms around Hailey’s neck.

  “You too, Penny. Love the seashell bikini top,” Hailey said.

  “Kristin would not let us help her,” Tiffany said. “She said you were the only one who could get her wings right.”

  “Oh, thank God you’re here.” Kristin held out a pair of gossamer wings suspended on thin wires. “And could you look any more hot? Adrian must have just about—”

  A loud clap and blinding flare of light cut her off. Pain seared Hailey’s face and arms, and she squeezed her eyelids closed as she stumbled against a pickup truck. When she opened her eyes, the afterimage blotches were so intense she could barely make out her friends staggering around the parking lot.

  She desperately grabbed for the edge of the pickup’s bed as the pavement under her started to give. As she slid and fell against the pickup, her gaze was forced up, where she saw someone standing on the small rise beyond the parking lot.

  Jay.

  She recognized him just as another crackling bolt darted toward her. At the last second, she
ducked behind the truck, the white-hot light searing her exposed knuckles. The truck buffeted as if it had just been rammed by another car and sparks exploded everywhere. Every muscle twitched and jolted as a current passed through her. She wanted to let go, but her hands seemed glued to the metal. After what felt like minutes but probably was mere seconds, her grip broke and she stumbled away. The smell of hot metal and burning plastic filled her nose, and her eyes watered.

  “Jay? JAY!” Marissa had seen him, too, and was screaming and running toward him. Or trying to. Her stiletto heels took her down after a few wobbly steps.

  A few feet in front of Hailey, Kristin lay in a dazed heap, moaning and cradling her arm. Her hand hung at an unnatural angle. Erin was bleeding from a cut on her forehead.

  Hailey stepped out from behind the truck, and another bolt blazed toward her. Penelope tripped on her tail and fell partway into the bolt’s path. She crumpled to the ground like a rag doll.

  Rage boiled through Hailey, and she whipped around, looking for anything she could use. A row of sandstone boulders, each a few feet wide, lined the lot as parking space markers. She barely thought about what she was doing. She focused on the nearest one and gave it a mental shove. It rolled, smacking the one beside it with a loud clack. She pushed at the entire row, sending the rocks rolling faster and faster toward the rise where Jay stood. They bumped and rumbled along the ground with blurring speed. She was going to take him out like a bowling pin.

  But as she watched, the hill seemed to grow under Jay. It swelled to such a steep slope it was almost a wall. The boulders crashed into the base and rolled to a stop in a great heap.

  She closed her eyes and sent her awareness upward. There. She pulled, and opened her eyes, and watched as a funnel of wind and rain appeared in the gray sky and stretched down toward the earth. The tip of the cone was aimed straight at Jay. She pushed the funnel to spin faster and faster. Leaves and trash began to whirl around the parking lot.

  Just before the funnel lowered enough to surround Jay, he sent another lightning bolt at her, this one twice as bright as the others. It crackled in the storm-laden air, and she dove back behind the truck. But she saw. She understood how he’d called the lightning. In the chaos, she’d nearly missed it. He reached a fist skyward, and then right as the lightning sped down toward him, he stomped one foot and flicked his index finger at his target. She reached for her own bolt in the clouds above, and found it, almost as if it had been waiting for her. A huge, crackling sparkler in the sky. She stood and slammed one foot to the pavement, and hurled it at him with focused precision just as the storm funnel touched down.