Chapter Three

Parents started to pour into the school after the blackout. Cassie's parents are in tears over the near loss of Cassie. Thankfully, Cassie's sister, Annabel, and her brother, Bailey, are both okay. Cassie has been rushed to the hospital and she is in serious condition.

"Oh my Lord, Ashlyn; what happened?" Ashlyn's mother, Lori, said bursting in and seeing Ashlyn's AC/DC shirt soaked in blood. Her step father Daniel was close on Lori's trail.

"It's Cassie's blood, not mine." Ashlyn muttered; her voice melancholy. She couldn't figure out why she was awake during the unconscious spell and she was in shock over Cassie.

Lori let out a sigh of relief. "Thank God for that, Ash. Is that Cheyenne Lyons?" Lori's eyes widened and she got the breath sucked out of her, like someone just punched her in the stomach. "Cassie... is she... dead?" Lori muttered. Ashlyn shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm not sure. She lost a lot of blood." she didn't mention that she saw it all happen. Ashlyn tilted her head and asked what Kristi had asked her:

"Mom, what did you see?" Lori looked shocked, her misty green eyes showing confusion and worry.

"What did I see?" She repeated. Ashlyn nodded.

"When you blacked out, Kristi told me she saw something, and I wanted to know what you saw." Lori's face read Ashlyn's hard face. Her green eyes locked with Ashlyn's hard so dark, they were almost black eyes, and she gave in to her stone-cold stare.

"I was with Indie. It was the 29th of April, 2010. I saw the date on my BlackBerry. Indie was blabbering on about something, and I got a text from you, Ashlyn." She closed her eyes. "It said: Mom, things are doing great in L.A. Love you and miss you; Ash." Lori's eyes flickered open and she stared intently at Ashlyn. "How come you didn't see yourself texting me?" Ashlyn's face was not easily read, but Lori knew better to trust that face.

"I did. I was in Los Angeles with..." She thought long and hard. "Some girl named Haylen. I don't know her, but we were on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. There was still debris everywhere, but we were on Madonna's star. We took a picture and then I woke up." Ashlyn hid her emotions with the unreadable mask she calls her face. Whenever Lori looks at Ashlyn, she sees the past.

Lori wishes the past would leave her alone.

• • • • • •

Cassie's blood pounded in her ears. Cassie felt the air slipping out of her lungs. When she blacked out, she saw five little babies in cribs. How is that even possible? Sure, her mom's been eating a lot, and she's not been drinking...

My God, she's pregnant! But she's pregnant with five? In my vision, I saw five little babies, who I called Alana, Mackenzie, Rosalie, John, and Carlisle. Ugh, my mom named a baby Carlisle? Cassie thought. That would have to change immediately. Charlie would work for him.

"Cassidy, everything's going to be OKAY." Someone said. She cringed. No one calls her Cassidy anymore. It sounds too... formal for her.

"Call me Cassie." She muttered inaudibly.

"Don't speak, Cassidy. You're being rushed to the hospital right now." Someone stuck a needle in her wrist. She screamed bloody murder.

"Cassie, just shut up and calm down!" Alexis said. Alexis Meyers; what is she doing in my ambulance?

"Cassidy--"

"Just call her Cassie, Nurse Janet, or she'll keep whining about it."

"Cassie," Nurse Janet said through her clenched veneered teeth. They cost way too much on a nurse's salary. Alexis's theory is that Janet has a past of upper-class living and decided to dip into her medical school funds. "Alexis is your blood donor. You both have blood type O Negative, which is extremely lucky because O Negative is in low supply."

EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!!! I GET ALEXIS'S COLD SNAKE LIKE BLOOD? God, PLEASE let me be dreaming and let me wake up in my plush, nice warm comforter. This is all a bad dream. This is all a bad dream.

"This is all a bad dream..." Cassie muttered as the anesthesia started to put her under.

• • • • • •

"Mommy!" Indie Howard screamed as she jumped into Lori Howard's arms. Indie's long black hair swished behind her as Lori spun her around. Miss Brianna watched as Ashlyn Blue walked in, glaring at Daniel Howard. Ashlyn demanded on keeping her last name the same when Lori married Daniel.

Brianna Gold shook her head, the wrinkled face smoothing over as she smiled. Brianna remembered Ashlyn.

When Ashlyn was two, her biological father visited her. Ashlyn doesn't even remember him. But, Brianna still remembers it like it happened just five minutes ago.

"No, Penny, you cannot take the car to the movies." She had insisted to her daughter. Penny wanted to use her car and she was absolutely against it.

"Penny, no! The answer is final: NO!" She cried, slamming down the phone. She spun around her chair and a man was staring intently at her. He had dark brown, almost black eyes, which looked like carbon copies of Ashlyn Blue's.

"Excuse me, but my daughter, Ashlyn, goes to this day care center." He had a thick Scottish or German accent.

"Yes, you two look a lot alike." He looked confused. "You have the same eyes." Brianna Gold stated. He smiled.

"She must be a gorgeous girlie then." He stated with a chuckle. He had a shaved head, and looked like he had just decided spur-of-the-moment to come see his daughter.

"Right this way, mister." Brianna said, leading him down the brightly colored hallway, filled with pictures 'colored' by two year olds. This hallway always made her smile.

"Miss, you wouldn't mind me asking, but what is your name?"

"My name is Mrs. Brianna Gold; but I go by Miss Brianna to my students." His phone rang and he stopped in the middle of the hallway, right next to Alexis Meyer's poorly colored picture of a purse.

"Simon, we'll talk later." He growled into the phone. "I'm visiting Lori and Ashlyn." He hung up the phone as Brianna stared at him intently.

"Right this way." She said, opening the door to the three-year-old room.

"Hi everyone!" Alexis strutted over to Miss Brianna.

"Miss Brianna, who is that man?" She asked. Brianna looked to Ashlyn, sitting in the corner, reading a small book.

"This is Ashlyn's daddy." at the mention of her name, Ashlyn looked up. Miss Brianna and Ashlyn's dad walked over to her. "Ashlyn, this is your daddy." Ashlyn's honey blonde hair fell in front of her almost black eyes and she brushed it away with her thin little hands, only to have it fall in front of her face again. Miss Brianna walked over to Ashlyn's seat and grabbed her cute headband with the big bow on it.

"Ashlyn, here's your headband! It's your favorite color, pink and yellow!" Back then, Ashlyn was smart enough to take the headband and give a rare smile that would make any adult give her what she wanted. She didn't even bother to tell Miss Brianna that her favorite colors were black and grey, like her eyes.

"Thank you Miss Brianna; I'm Ashlyn Blue!" She said, using her cutsie voice that anyone would bow to.

"Hi Ashlyn; I'm..." He trailed off. "I'm your daddy." Ashlyn's face fell.

"I don't have a daddy. Mommy says the stork dropped me off through the window. If I did have a daddy, it wouldn't be you!" She said, accidentally letting a bit of her adultness drip through her cute voice. Miss Brianna seemed startled.

"Ashlyn! I've never seen you so rude." Ashlyn flashed her cutsie smile.

"Sorry Miss Brianna; sorry mister." She said, then flung the headband across the room and cackled. Miss Brianna gaped at Ashlyn, looking like an angel, but acting like the devil. She scuttled across the room and Alexis started crying because Cassie had picked up the headband and slapped Alexis with it. Across the room, the man looked at Ashlyn affectionately.

"You take after me." He said with a smile. Ashlyn smiled, sincerely this time.

"You are my daddy!" She squealed. Miss Brianna walked back over, giving the man a clue to leave.

"Bye daddy!" Ashlyn cried as he left. He turned back and waved to her. Ashlyn's smile was new, it looked... real.

"Bye Miss Brianna!" Indie cried, bringing Miss Brianna back to Earth.

"Bye Indie!" Now Miss Brianna was all alone.

"Oh, wasn't it nice to see Miss Brianna, Ashlyn?" Ashlyn rolled her eyes.

"Yes, because every teenage girl wants to see her day care teacher in an AC/DC shirt soaked in your best friend's blood, after a world crisis! I absolutely missed Miss Brianna!" She said sarcasm oozing from her voice.

Seeing Miss Brianna Gold brought back memories for Lori... but they aren't necessarily good ones.

Seeing Miss Brianna made her think of... him.