Chapter Sixteen

I'd awoken with a start. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked around the room, swallowing a scream when I saw the darkling. I recognized my father's face, distorted in a silent cry. It disappeared quickly and I was left grasping for Reid.

"What? What's wrong?"

"Reid, I just saw a darkling." He squinted at me before reaching past me to turn on the bedside lamp. My heart was still beating frantically and I had a death grip on Reid's arm. "It was my dad."

"Karli, who would send you a darkling?" I shook my head, scared that if I opened my mouth I'd start to cry. He wrapped his arm around me and pulled my head to his shoulder. "It's okay, it's gone now."

"Who would send my father?" I held back a sob as a tear slid down my cheek. Reid brushed it away with his thumb and grabbed his cell phone from his pants pocket. "What are you doing?"

"Calling Caleb." I focused on breathing while the phone rang. From where I was laying, I could hear both sides perfectly.

"Hello?" a groggy Caleb answered.

"Caleb, hey, it's Reid."

"Yeah, I know. What's up?" His voice got tense for a moment. "Is Karli alright?"

"She's fine. Listen, somebody just sent her a darkling."

"Who would send Karli a darkling."

"It's not just that, Caleb. It was in the form of her dad." Caleb stayed silent. "Any ideas?"

"Reid, who would do that to her?"

"I don't know, man."

"Wait." We paused. "Uh, never mind."

"No, what?"

"It's just something Sarah was telling me earlier that Karli told her. She promised me not to tell, though." I froze.

"What'd she tell you?" Reid asked.

"No!" I screamed, grabbing the phone from him. "Caleb, you can't tell Reid, or any of the others."

"So, it's true? About the prologue and the addiction. It's true that there are no negative effects?"

"Caleb, I'm so sorry, really, I am, but you cannot tell anyone. I may be in trouble as it is." And then it dawned on me. "The Elders sent the darkling."

"What? Why?" I dropped the phone on the bed and moved away from it. I grabbed the desk trashcan and threw up. Reid was staring at me with wide eyes when he slowly picked up the phone.

"What's going on, Caleb?" he asked into the cell.

"They're going to kill me, Reid." I started to cry again as I slid to the floor with the trashcan. "The Elders are gonna kill me." He got up from the bed and sat beside me on the floor as I empied the contents of my stomach into the bin. He handed me the phone and I took it.

"Karli, why are they going to kill you?" Caleb asked. I sniffed.

"Because Sarah told you the secret. Because I told Sarah."

"I still don't understand."

"When it was given to me, I was told--"

"Wait, you have it?"

"Yeah."

"Like, physically, you have the papers?"

"Yes, Caleb."

"And you didn't tell us?"

"No, I wasn't allowed. When I received them, my dad told me that if I ever told any of you that the Elders would end my life. Apparently, they mean to make good on their end."

"Karli, that isn't funny."

"I wasn't trying to be." I looked up at Reid who looked thoroughly confused.

"Okay, well, if they've sent you a darkling, at least you know they aren't going to come after you without warning," Caleb continued.

"Maybe the darkling was my warning." He went silent. "Why did Sarah tell you in the first damn place?"

"Because I'm showing symptoms."

"Of addiction?"

"Of aging."

"Oh."

"No, that doesn't make it right, Karls." I smiled at the nickname despite the growing fear in the pit of my stomach. "Anyways, maybe you should get back to Ipswich."

"Yeah. I'd certainly feel safer with all of you."

"Okay, I'm going to get you two a couple of plane tickets. Get Reid to pack your things and you tell your mom that there's an emergency and that you have to get back."

"Alright."

"Get moving. I want you back here before sunset."

An hour and a half later, Reid and I were getting into a cab outside the apartment. I'd told my mother that Pogue's girlfriend had gotten into a car accident and he needed us there. She wished me a safe trip with an eyebrow raised, but said nothing else.

Caleb had gotten us two tickets on a plane that left for Salem in a little over an hour. Reid had packed our things up haphazardly, and they were in the back of the cab. We'd moved to the end of the street when I remembered the little occult shop and the owner who'd told me she saw my death.

"Driver, take a left here." He did as I asked, slinging me into Reid.

"Karli, what the hell? We don't have time for a detour if we're going to catch the plane."

"There's something I have to see, Reid." The driver followed my directions to the store I'd run from earlier and I was shocked and scared to see a nearly dilapidated building in it's place. "What? But I was just here."

"What are you talking about, Karlissa?" I stepped from the cab and moved toward the boarded up windows. "Keep the meter running."

"Reid, this is where I was earlier when you came looking for me."

"Jesus, Karli, this place looks like it's about to collapse."

"There was a shop here earlier. A little occult place." He was giving me wide eyes. "I went inside!"

He put his hand on my arm to steady me. "Come on, we have to go." I pulled away.

"She told me I was going to die, Reid. The shop lady read my palm and said she saw depression and death. My death. She fucking knew, Reid!" I was screaming at him in the middle of the sidewalk. I began to hyperventilate and he held me close to him.

"She didn't know anything. You aren't going to die. I'm not going to let them touch you. Do you hear me? I won't let them." I allowed myself to believe that he could actually protect me. It was that or lose my mind.

He pulled me back into the cab and we set off for the airport, me teetering towards lunacy wrapped tightly in his arms.