Chapter Thirty-One




Annabel awoke with a start; for a second she couldn't remember where she was but as soon as she saw Joshua's concerned face she remembered, everything.
Annabel sat up with a start. "Clear and Carter are in 'trouble'." She said and stood up.
"What?" Nicolas asked, surprised.
Joshua stood up and looked at her as though he understood. "Did you see it? Dream it?" He asked.
Annabel nodded and headed toward the "door". "We have to go, now." She commanded.
Joshua and Nicolas followed her; Annabel swept the blanket back with a quick motion and stepped into the cool Long Island spring night.
"We're going to walk? And how will we find them? We have no clue where they are." Nicolas pointed out.
Annabel somewhat ignored him and kept walking. "Just trust me on this one." She said, not granting him a backward glance.
Without another word, the trio walked into the night, following a leader who wasn't sure in herself but was in too much of a hurry to question.
Within ten minutes, they had made it to the town, which was deathly silent. Annabel shuddered and whipped her head from left to right, trying to find Clear or Carter. The only sound was the wind blowing through the night; Annabel's black hair was blown slightly, playing in her face as though teasing her.
Annabel tucked the lose strands behind her ears and listened harder, anything to give them a clue where Clear and Carter were. Anything.
The wind blew again and the sounds of a radio faintly reached Annabel's ears. She whipped her head in that direction and listened again. The radio was playing to her left; more likely than not, that's where Clear and Carter were.
Annabel, Joshua and Nicolas ran down the street to their left, the wind whipping in their faces.
Parked near a street light was Carter's car, Annabel could see Carter and Clear inside. They were obviously arguing about something, Clear seemed a bit calmer then Carter, who seemed slightly scared.
Joshua joined Annabel's side, resting his hand on her shoulder. Annabel turned her head to face him.
"What do we do now?" He asked her, his eyes locking with hers.
Annabel couldn't answer his question; even if she could she wouldn't have had time because Nicolas spoke.
"They don't look like they're in trouble to me." He said, his voice slightly tinged with cruelty.
Before anyone had a chance to speak, Clear turned her head and met eyes with Annabel. Carter turned his head also, as though trying to see what Clear was looking at. When Carter saw Annabel he slammed his hand down onto the dashboard and opened the car door with a jerk.
Clear followed him out of the car, attempting to talk to him but he ignored her; Carter walked over to Annabel and stood in front of her.
Before Carter could speak, Clear joined his side. "Carter, now calm down." She suggested, looking over at Annabel.
"Why should I? She's just like Alex; every time she's around something back is going to happen. Someone's going to die. I don't' wanna go back there; I'm not going to die just because some 'freak' keeps hanging around me!" Carter yelled.
At first Annabel was stung by his words but that felling quickly disappeared and she scowled at him. "You think I'm causing this?" She spat, trying to keep her voice from rising.
Clear stepped in, going to stand beside Annabel. "Carter just calm down. You know this isn't Annabel's fault!" Clear said.
Carter's eyes darted around and he let out a deep breath. "Okay, you're right; Alex intervened and it skipped me. Why should I worry anyway?" Carter asked, though it was more of a statement than a question. He shrugged his shoulders and tried to act easy-going, as though nothing was bothering him.
He turned away from the four of them, heading back to his car. The car's motor was running and the radio was playing; the song ended and a new one began. It took Annabel a second to realize that the song playing was "Don't Fear the Reaper."
Annabel's brow knitted as she thought for a second, thoughts swarming around in her head.
She was startled by a strange popping noise; she looked up to see what was making the noise. She could see nothing in the air that could possibly be making the noise. The stars were slightly blacked out by the orange glow of a streetlight that hung over the passenger side of Carter's car.
Annabel blinked and focused on the streetlight; the light was flickering and made a startling snapping sound. Electricity seemed to be jumping around inside the glass dome; the sparks hit the glass and it cracked.
Annabel looked down to see where Carter was; if he were on the drivers' side or in the car he wouldn't be hurt, by whatever planned to hurt him.
However Carter wasn't on the drivers' side; he was over at the passenger side, closing the door that Clear had left open.
The light popped again and more of the glass cracked.
"Carter, watch out!" Annabel cried.
Almost as if on cue, the glass dome shattered into some very large pieces. Carter looked over at Annabel and then looked up but it was too late to do anything but stare. The glass pierced Carter's skin like knifes; the glass sliced through his face, piercing his skull. Carter's body slumped to the ground, glass shards sticking out of his corpse; his body landed in his own blood.
Clear let out a strangled scream that seemed mixed with a sob. Annabel felt her eyes go wide with shock and surprise, once again she had been right. She had seen Carter's death before it happened. Maybe Carter was right, maybe being around her doomed everyone.
Clear was first to snap everyone out of their shock. "We gotta get out of here." She commanded and ran over to Carter's still running car.
"Don't Fear the Reaper" was still blaring on the radio; Annabel would remember the words to that song as long as she lived, they would be implanted in her brain no matter how hard she tried to get rid of them.
Annabel, Joshua and Nicolas ran over to Carter's car as well; Annabel sidestepped Carter's corpse as she climbed into the passenger side.
On second thought, she climbed over the armrest in the middle of the car and into the backseat. Joshua joined her and Nicolas climbed into the passenger seat. Clear fully turned the ignition and put the car in reverse.
The car pulled away from Carter's corpse, trying to outrun something they had no control over.