No. It was too much. It wasn't possible. Jake. Dead. Aunt Nikki and Uncle Greg, Controllers. Sara, one of Them as well. It couldn't be possible. But it was. I sat down abruptly on my bed that the Ellimist had ever-so-kindly supplied me at the Hork-Bajir valley. We each had our own cave. At least, those of us that were left. Cassie was next door, Marco on her left. Ax had brought his scoop with him.
We had just settled in, and none of us had really begun to accept what had just happened. We were all in a sort of post-traumatic haze.
After all, it had to be some kind of mistake. Jake, my cousin, Marco's best friend, Cassie's crush, Ax's Prince, leader of this pathetic little group called Animorphs, couldn't possibly be dead.
Except he was. I sat up abruptly, wiping tears off my cheek. "Why?!" I screamed to the empty cave around me. "Why did you kill him?" There was a movement in the shadows, and out stepped a rather short, ugly wrinkled creature, with a semi-human face and the body of a small dinosaur. Its skin hung off in flaps. Drode. The Wild Card.
"You!" I cried angrily. "You no good, lousy, rotten, wrinkled, down-trodden, heartless MONSTER!" I lunged for him, and he ducked.
"Now, now, Rachel," he said in a scolding voice. "Name calling cannot bring your cousin back. But the Crayak can." I spit at the ground in front of him.
"I will accept nothing from the Crayak!"
"The Crayak is a being of his word, Rachel."
"I don't trust the Crayak as far as I can honkin' throw him!" I screamed. Then, softer, "Go. Just leave. Leave me alone, Drode, your master has what he wants. But know this: someday, somehow, I will get you. I will hunt you and your pathetic master down and make you beg for mercy. I will kill you, slowly and painfully. I will kill you both. Now. Get. Out."
He grinned wickedly. "Very well, Rachel. Rachel, who is so quick to judge. To point a finger. Let me tell you something, my beautiful Rachel. It was the Ellimist." He lifted my chin in one of his claws and forced me to look into his beady eyes. "The Ellimist killed him. He planned it from the beginning. Think about that. Think about it long and hard."
And with that, he was gone.
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