Chapter Four: The Mark
Two weeks had gone by since Troy had been discharged from the hospital and Emma had officially begun her job as a babysitter. Matt was a shy kid and it took a couple days for him to even begin to trust Emma. She was fixing him a quick snack before bed when Matt walked into the kitchen, taking a seat at the table. In his hands were action figures. Emma smiled when she noticed what they were. They were power rangers.
"What do you have there?" Emma asked him.
Matt looked up, eyes lighting up as he spoke. "Power Rangers!"
"They look pretty cool."
"They are." He looked at her for a while as if evaluating whether he should say something. "Don't tell anyone but-" He glanced around the room, lowering his voice as he spoke. "I know them."
"Do you?" Emma hid her smile. When she was younger, she liked to pretend she knew them too.
Matt nodded his head. "But I can't tell you who they are. It's a secret."
"You must be really special if they trust you with such a big secret." The little boy nodded his head. Emma heard the door to the front of the house open and in walked Taylor.
"I'm home." She called out. As soon as Matt heard his mothers' voice he ran into her arms. Taylor picked him up, swung him around and kissed his forehead. "Hi, sweetheart." Then she looked to Emma. "Sorry I made you stay later than usual."
"Don't worry about it. Busy day?"
"Like you wouldn't believe. Eric's still finishing up some paper work. I decided to come back earlier than him. You have school tomorrow and that means you need sleep."
Emma wouldn't have minded staying for a couple more hours, but she was grateful. They said goodnight to each other and Emma headed over to her house.
Lily was excited as she walked out of the boutique. Nothing could get rid of the smile on her face. Her
sister had told her that every time she walked into a room she lit it up like fireworks. Even though the wedding was still a couple months away she could not wait to be married.
She had just purchased the perfect dress. She didn't want a big wedding, only having invited a few family members and close friends. Her sister and Fran had accompanied her to pick out a dress. Her sister had long ago found out about her tattoo, but she didn't know the true meaning behind it, believing that Lily and Casey had just gotten matching tattoos.
On the day of the wedding she would have to cover it up to keep her secret hidden. She was a little jealous that all Casey had to do was put on a tux and it would be like if it was never there.
"I don't understand why you want to cover it up?" Her sister Ana asked. Lily could only shrug. "I mean there's a reason both you and Casey got them and it's your wedding day. I say you leave it out for the whole world to see."
Lily glanced at Fran. They both knew she couldn't do that.
"I'll think about it." Lily said to keep her from talking about it anymore. The ride home was silent. Lily had dropped her sister off while she and Fran had headed to her house.
"Do you think you'll every tell her?" Fran asked her as they entered the house.
"Tell who what?" Casey asked getting up from the couch.
Lily sighed. "Ana. She keeps trying to convince me not to hide my tattoo."
Casey understood. They were sworn to secrecy and the only reason Fran knew was because she had accidently found out. Casey knew Lily didn't want to talk about it anymore, so he decided it was best to change the topic instead.
"Who's hungry? I made lunch."
Troy's vision had stopped but the dreams were still frequent. He had decided to finally tell someone because he knew it might eventually drive him crazy. Sandy had not believed him, thinking he had simply hit his head really hard. The night before he had texted Emma, asking her if she could meet him at the park. She'd agreed and now he waited for her, praying she wouldn't dismiss his dreams as his mind playing tricks on him. Somehow, he felt there was much more to them. He just wasn't sure what.
A tap on his shoulder brought him out of his thoughts. It was Emma smiling down at him. He moved over giving her room to sit next to him on the bench.
"So, what did you want to talk about?" She asked.
Troy took a deep breath. "My dreams." He stared off in front of him. He couldn't see her face, but he knew she was listening. "The thing is they weren't just nightmares. They were visions."
"What do you mean were?" she questioned.
"They stopped. When I ran away…I… saw this woman. She was trying to tell me something. It was as if I was there with her. Like she could see me." He said.
"How do you know she wasn't really there?"
"Because…she wasn't the only one I saw. There were bodies everywhere and there was fire and-"
"Bodies?" She stopped him.
"Emma," Troy finally turned to look at her. "Emma, they were dead. They were all dead."
Emma couldn't speak. If this was all Troy saw, it was no wonder he couldn't sleep. It took a while for the information to sink in, but when it finally did, she looked at him. "Have you ever seen the woman before?"
Troy shook his head. "Never. I mean I don't think I have. She was covered in blood. I don't think I'd recognize her if I saw her." They were silent for a moment before he remembered something. "I may not be able to recognize her by her face, but I do remember something. When she grabbed me, I saw this mark near her wrist."
"A mark?" Troy nodded. "We'll that's a start."
"You believe me? You don't think I'm crazy?"
"Do you believe that there's a reason that you're seeing these things?" She asked. He nodded. "Then I do. I believe you. We'll search for any information there is on the mark and we'll figure out how this woman is connected."
Emma got up ready to start looking. Before she could get far, Troy grabbed her hand. She turned around. "I don't want the others to know yet. Not until we find something to prove I'm not going crazy."
Emma thought the others should know but she respected his decision. She had never kept anything from Gia and she knew keeping this from her would prove to be a challenge. "I won't say a word." She promised. "Now, let's go look. We're bound to find something on the internet."