“My hands!” Gabe shrieked as blood from the slashes in his ripped palms streamed down. “What have you done?”
“What I had to,” I said, the knife trembling in my fingers. The cuts weren’t more than scratches, but to a Dark Lifer, any cut to the hands was dangerous. I clutched the knife tightly, afraid he’d attack if I let go of my weapon. Even with his blood energy draining away, I knew he could overpower me if he got close enough.
But he didn’t seem interested in me, staring with horror at the dripping blood.
Pressing his hands together, as if that would hold his soul intact, he looked around frantically. “I have to get out of here!”
“Ten minutes,” I said.
“Damn it! Don’t you think I know that? This isn’t the first time I’ve been injured. That time on the cliff was a close call, but I found another body within ten minutes. I know what to do. I’m not weak and scared like other Dark Lifers.”
“Nine minutes,” I said, with a glance down at the illuminated wrist watch I’d borrowed from Dustin.
“You planned this!” He started toward me with the fury of a charging bull, but stopped when I waved the knife. “Now I’ll have to find another body or I’m done.”
“Yes,” I said, sickened by my own violence.
“After all these years … so many lives.” Holding his palms together, he shook his head. “I can’t believe you did this.”
“I had to.”
“No, you didn’t. You could have trusted me and we could have been happy forever.”
“Your definition of happy. Not mine.”
“I have to give you credit. No one else has ever stood up to me. And I can’t take your body because you’re a Temp Lifer.”
“Eight minutes,” I murmured, keeping my distance.
“But I could touch you and drain your energy, leave you close to dead.”
“That would waste valuable time — and you wouldn’t have much energy left to take another body.”
“True. And I don’t want to hurt you — despite everything.”
“Approaching seven minutes.”
“That is plenty of time to take a new body.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.” He stared hard at me. “There are homes close by — I’ll find someone. And then I’ll come back for you.”
I moved aside — far out of his way — as he bolted for the gate. I knew what would happen next and I steeled my heart against pity. I also reached down for the rainbow cloth bracelet on my wrist and quickly did the “good luck” ritual of turning it right and left, then kissing the cloth and whispering the lucky chant. I needed all the luck I could get.
“It’s locked!” Gabe exploded.
He rushed around the fence, rattling iron bars and swearing with crazed fury.
I glanced down at my watch.
Five minutes.
With a shout of rage, Gabe stormed back toward me, reaching with his bloody hands but sharply pulling back as I waved the knife. “Amber, give it to me now!”
“What?” I asked innocently.
“The key!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You do too! Give me the key now!” he demanded, but suddenly he wasn’t so fierce; his voice was weakening. Before my eyes, his energy was fading.
I steeled my emotions, shutting off sympathy. “What key?”
“The key to the damned gate!”
“The gate was open when I got here,” I lied.
“I don’t believe you! The gate was open and now it’s locked. It didn’t just lock itself. You did it!”
“Why would I trap myself in here with you?”
“Give me the key!” he bellowed.
“I can’t give what I don’t have.”
He cradled his hands, shaking uncontrollably. I could see flickers of silvery mist blending with the blood, as if his soul was slowly seeping out.
“I’m starting to glow … I have to go now! They’ll find me.”
I knew he meant the Dark Disposal Team. That had been part of my plan, so I didn’t say anything, only gave another grim nod. This was the only way to save Eli and myself. With Gabe captured, unable to use his psychic sense and flee before the DDT arrived, for once and for all he’d be stopped.
He knew it, too, and regarded me with a look that was terrifying and tender at the same time, as if he both respected and hated me. He was desperate now, and angry, a caged beast with no way out.
Only two minutes left. I still gripped the knife, although there was little reason to, since he was rapidly losing strength. Gabe sagged down to his knees, moaning and clasping his bleeding hands, almost as if praying.
There was a flash, and a group of figures in formal business suits, wielding silver lassos, materialized. I’d never seen so many DD Team members before, as if they’d called in everyone on the other side to bring down their most-wanted fugitive.
I could hardly bear to watch as the silver whips snapped toward the spectral glow that was seeping from Eli’s body. As his glow spiraled upward, like a flame rising from a fire, the DD Team’s whips lashed out and curled around it. Energy crackled, and light exploded like bursting stars. Then the shape of the glow shifted, spreading and growing, until I could see a handsome young man with a dark ponytail, seaman’s clothes, and ocean-green eyes.
“Amber,” I heard him whisper one last time. “I won’t forget … you.”
The whips curled tighter, spinning Gabe’s ghostly essence. His glow faded, like a dimmer switch slowly turning off. And as Gabe disappeared in the throws of silver ropes and business suits, I felt something strange and familiar happening to me. My world tilted and shifted into sensations I recognized.
The switch.
Grammy had managed to pull harp strings and speed up the process like I’d asked. But I wasn’t ready to go yet! Eli’s body was still here, bleeding in a cemetery without anyone to help him. Gabe would be gone and Eli would be alone. Alyce would take my place, but she wouldn’t know what to do. But there was no time. I was swept by a whirlwind and pulled into a roar of swirling colors and movement.
Flying forward, spinning … then impact.
When I opened my eyes, I was swimming in darkness, blinking. My vision gradually adjusted and I could make out furniture and familiar objects like stuffed animals on a shelf, a bulletin board tacked on a wall, and a furry white cat curled on a bed pillow.
My bedroom, my cat, my body.
Thank heaven — and Grammy.
I was home.
* * *
I had no memory of falling asleep but I must have, because I was awoken by a rough tongue licking my face. Instinctively I reached out to push Snowy away until memory crashed back and I wrapped my arms around my cat.
“Snowy!” I cried, loving how her soft fur tickled my skin. “You’re the most beautiful, wonderful, best cat in the world. It’s so good to hold you again.”
She replied by wriggling out of my arms and scampering out of my room.
“Still the same old attitude,” I said, smiling.
Then I leaned back against my pillows and waited for my thoughts and feelings to catch up with each other. Being back in my own body felt like being reborn, although it wasn’t anything new. I had this crazy urge to sing or dance, like there was something to celebrate. Yet I was sick inside with dread, too, remembering the terrible things had brought me to this moment.
Still, for a moment, I reveled in being back home and danced across my sunlit room to the mirror. “I’m me, I’m me, I’m me!” I sang, as if inventing a brilliant new song.
Gazing in the mirror was like magic. There I was: too-curly brown hair, freckles sprinkling my pale skin, and dark eyes just like my father’s. I was wearing a nightgown that was too long and old fashioned to have been my own choice. And when I looked around my room, which was completely reorganized so that everything was color coordinated and neat, I recognized Grammy’s work.
While I knew Grammy had gone back to the other side and I guessed that Alyce was herself again, I didn’t know what had happened to Eli.
Ohmygod! What if he was still in the cemetery?
Quickly, I looked around for a phone and found one on the dresser.
I called Eli’s cell and waited, listening to ring after ring after ring and then finally reaching voicemail.
My anxiety mounting, I hung up and called someone who might have answers.
Dustin picked up before it rang twice.
“Amber?” he asked at the sound of my voice.
“Yes — I’m home. But I don’t know what happened after I left last night.”
“I do,” he said a little too smugly.
“Have you heard from Eli?” I asked. “He was bleeding and then my switch happened and I couldn’t help him.”
“Relax,” Dustin said. “He’s fine.”
“Are you sure?” My knees went all rubbery and I collapsed on my bed.
“Positive. Did you really think I’d stay completely away last night? I was outside the fence ready to jump in if your plan failed. Wow! I couldn’t believe it when you actually sliced Eli … I mean, Gabe. Way to go, Amber.”
“I’m not proud of what I did.”
“Well, I am. You’re my new hero.”
“I don’t feel heroic — mostly sad. Gabe wasn’t all that bad. In his own egotistical way, he thought he was helping me.”
“He tried to kill you!”
“I don’t think he would have hurt me, not as badly as I hurt him. It was so hard to do what I did … then watch him bleed.”
“I nearly rushed in to make sure he didn’t attack you,” Dustin added.
“Thank God you didn’t! Gabe would have jumped into you body and things would have even been worse.”
“Which is why I stayed hidden. I’m not stupid,” he added dryly. “Those people in suits with the whips — wow! I’ve never seen anything like that. And the way Gabe just floated out of Eli’s body was freaking weird! Those silver whips spun around him and then everyone was gone.”
“What about Eli?”
“Oh, he was there and so were you. But you were both just lying there, not moving. So I used a spare key — you didn’t think I gave you the only copy, did you? — and went to help him. I found the first-aid kit you’d left and bandaged his hands. The bleeding stopped — the cuts weren’t deep. But he didn’t wake up.”
“What about Alyce?”
“She woke up and seemed confused at first, but then she said she had to go home to her mother. She had her own car, of course, so she didn’t need a ride. I couldn’t stay around to explain things but I showed her the grave. You know the one I mean.”
“Yes, I do,” I said solemnly. “But what about Eli?”
“Since he wouldn’t wake up, I took him to his house and gave his family a story about his being mugged. His parents, brother, and sister were really upset.”
“His sister?” I asked. “Sharayah was there, too?”
“Yeah. It was weird seeing her, considering you were wearing her body just a week ago.”
“I’m glad she’s back with her family, but how is Eli doing?”
“Last I heard, he was still sleeping.”
“I tried his phone and he didn’t answer.”
“Give him time.”
“I will. Suddenly I have a whole future ahead with lots of time.” I was overwhelmed with conflicting emotions.
“Not that much time — I have to get to school. And you should, too.”
School? The word startled me, but in a nice “life must go on” kind of way. And well, why not? My family had no idea what I’d been through. They’d expect me to follow my usual routine. So I told Dustin I’d see him at school, then hung up.
My stomach growled — a familiar sound that reminded me again of how good it felt to be me. I got dressed quickly, then hurried to the kitchen where I saw a picture-perfect family: mine.
My little sisters complained when I squeezed them too tightly.
“Hurting me!” Cherry whined.
Olive squirmed away and ran to Mom, who was pouring cereal into bowls.
Only Melonee didn’t complain, and hugged me back with gusto. “Sissy home,” she said, then offered me half of a buttered slice of toast.
Dad was in the living room, sipping coffee while he watched the news. When I went in to give him a hug, he looked up at me curiously.
“I just heard on the news about a boy from your school,” he said, clicking the remote to a different channel. “He was mugged last night. Eli Rockham—”
“Rockingham,” I corrected, a chill shivering up my skin.
“Yeah.” Dad nodded. “I thought the name sounded familiar.”
“It’s on the news?”
“It’s a big story, I guess, because he was in some contest. Is he a friend of yours?”
“Something like that.” Much more than a friend, I thought, blushing. “What exactly did you hear?”
“They think he was attacked by an obsessed fan.”
“But is he okay?” I held my breath.
“Yeah. They said he was resting at home — no mention of a hospital.”
I breathed out in relief.
Still, I wished he’d call so I’d know how he was doing.
Would he be awake by now? I wondered.
Looking down at my wrist, I saw my own watch, not the digital one I’d borrowed from Dustin. My lucky bracelet was gone, too — but I knew exactly where to find it.
Alyce … how was she doing?
Would she remember anything from the last few days? Did she know what happened last night and that I’d been the one to find her sister’s grave?
As if just thinking of her held magic, I heard a honk outside. Rushing to the window, I saw Junkmobile pulling up in front of my house.
Without bothering to find a jacket, I raced out of my room.
To see my best friend.