Chapter 5:
Alyssa's POV:
After finally fall asleep and about three, I awoke at four thirty in the morning to my cell phone ringing in the other room. I quickly jumped up and answered it, not bothering to look at the screen.
"Alyssa!" I heard someone say, sounding relieved.
"Uh yeah. Who is this?" I asked confused.
"Oh. Hi, darling. It's your mother. Reid, he's in the hospital. Now don't be worried. I need you to come down as soon as you can. Tomorrow if you can. He's been calling your name nonstop for almost a half an hour! We thought he'd stop, but he never did." She said almost as if it was no big deal.
"What??? What happened!" I yelled completely shocked. This of course woke Sky up.
"Oh, well you know, an 'incident'" she said it as if it was obvious, and finally, I understood. What I also realized was that nothing else was important. Pogue wasn't important, the mystery girl wasn't important (unless of course she was the one that did this to my brother), and fuck I wasn't important. The only important thing was my brother and his well being. I fucking love him more than anything in the world. He was the only person who cared about me. My foster parents didn't want me, and my mother didn't want me either. I was just a burden, a waste of time. But Reid, who loved me, who cared for me, who wanted me, was hurt. And I need to be there for him.
"Alright mom, I'll be there soon." I said in a weak voice holding back tears.
"Sky, I- I need to go! I need to go now!" I yelled, grabbing my cell phone and jacket and throwing on my shoes.
"Alyssa, calm down. You're tired. We'll do whatever it is you need to do in the morning." She said in a calming voice.
"NO!" I yelled. "You don't understand! He's, Reid, he's in the, he's- he's HE NEEDS ME!!!" I'm trying so hard not to burst into tears.
"Alyssa." She said wrapping her arms around me and embracing me in a tight hug. "It'll be okay. I promise. If its that important to you, lets go." She says, throwing on her jacket and shoes.
"Wait, us???" I said, somewhat confused.
"Yes, us. I can't let you drive by yourself! It's late and you're tired. What if you get in an accident?"
"You do know Caleb's getting married right?" I said, wondering if that's why she wanted to come.
"Oh shut up. Yes, I know he's getting married. Besides I have Joe, so it's all good."
"Joe? You mean Dan?" I said.
"Oh Joe, Dan, whatever." She said like it's no big deal.
"Mhm… well we gotta go…" I said, running out the door. I grabbed Sky's hand to fling her out the door, but as soon as I did, the background began to spin. I wasn't really sure what was going on. All the sudden I was in what looks like a waiting room. Everyone's there, so I'm guessing it's the hospital Reid's at. They all looked up at me.
"When did you get here?" Caleb asked suspiciously.
"Yeah, Alyssa. If that is your real name!" Tyler said.
"Oh shut the fuck up Tyler." I said, annoyed.
"Yep, definitely her…" Tyler said, rolling his eyes.
"Where's Reid?" I asked, with a worried tone in my voice that I knew everyone noticed. "What happened?"
"Alyssa, they won't let anyone visit. He's been calling your name, so they might let you in." my mother explained. I ran up to the nurse leaving his room.
"I'm sorry ma'am. No visitors." She said, already knowing what I was going to say.
"I'm his sister, Alyssa. Please, he's been calling my name. Please, let me in." I begged. She bit her lip.
"Alright fine…" she said hesitantly. All of this made me forget Sky was even there. She was talking (flirting) with Caleb, the almost married guy, so I decided not to bother her. I walked in. Reid was barely conscious, and he looked badly hurt. His leg was broken and he had a heart monitor. I figured that the hospital wasn't too worried, because our family kind of has a history of making quick recoveries.
"Hey Reid." I said, taking a seat on the stool next to his bed. He smiled.
"Hi Alyssa." He said weakly.
"Reid, what happened?" I asked.
"I was driving to New York, to come visit you, but I only got a few miles, until something happened. I don't really know what. The girl, she was sitting right next to me, and she disappeared and a giant orb of something, not energy, replaced her spot. It was a purplish black color, and I could barely see through it. It started to fade to a maroon and then a bright red and before I could do anything, it exploded sending me directly through the glass of the car door window. I landed in a ditch on my leg and I couldn't get up. I eventually pulled myself out and called mom on her cell phone. That's not important though. The important thing is that I was driving to tell you something important, only now I cant remember what it was. I- I cant remember anything about it." He explained. It took me a minute to absorb all that information.
"Reid, Caleb said to wait and see if she attacked again, before we went looking for her. She did, and now I we NEED to find her!"
"I don't know Alyssa." He said, sounding uneasy. What is it with them? Cant they understand that waiting to be attacked is DANGEROUS! Look at what happened to Reid. Ugh! I need to reason with them. When the nurse came back and told me that one more visitor was allowed, I asked for Caleb. He was the one that made most of the decisions. Reid nodded, telling the nurse that he agreed. She asked for Caleb to come in and a few moments later he appeared through the door.
"Caleb, it was her. The girl, she was the one that hurt Reid. You said that we were gonna wait, to see if she attacked again. We waited and she did. If we wait any longer someone else is going to be hurt. Please Caleb, we need to fight back. Or else another one of us will be hurt. Please." I begged. I was almost on tears and I knew he could tell. I noticed how much I'd been crying this week. And I had a feeling so did everyone else.
He sighed and looked up at me. "Alyssa, I don't know. We can't fight. You know that. It's dangerous. We haven't used in a while, and we age. And I can't let that happen. I really think it's a bad idea."
"What do you mean a bad idea? It's a necessity that we stop her. Reid was hurt!" I was fuming.
"Alyssa please calm down. We just can't!" he said, in his serious voice, which always made me crack up, and it was really hard to stifle my laughter.
"Alyssa!" Reid yelled, causing both Caleb and I to stare at him. " I was reading, you know, doing research on this lady, and just everything. And I remember dad telling me that only the first born will get powers. But Alyssa, she has them. And so I asked dad if the second child ever had powers, and he said he's only ever heard of it once before. He said that it was a rare case. He also said that according to the Book of Damnation, the one time it did happen, the child was different. Their powers were different at least. They- it said that they – the child – didn't age. When they used I mean. And I didn't think anything of it at the time, when I was younger. But I just remembered it a little while ago. That's what I was driving to New York to tell you! And the girl, she must've made me forget! That must be what happened." Reid said. I could hear the happy tone of realization in his voice.
"Well, if I can't age, then I can use right?" I said, somewhat confused, looking at Caleb.
"We cant prove that though." Caleb said sternly. Ugh. Party-pooper. "Unless we go look in the Book of Damnation…" I could tell that he was hesitant about this though.
I stood up and stuck out my finger above my head like a super hero. "To the Book of Damnation!" I said, running to the door. I turned around, ran back and gave Reid a hug and a kiss on he cheek. "We'll be right back!" I said, excitedly. All this had made me extremely hyper. We finally got there. We found the part about second born children with powers.
"Though it has never been proved," Caleb read "there have been 7 reports of second born children with the power. None of them have aged hen using though." He kept reading. "There is only one way to test whether or not they age. Draw a star on the ground." Caleb did that. " Now draw a circle around it." he did that too. "Let a few drops of the second born child's blood fall into the center." He cut my finger, making me squeal. A few drops of blood fell into the center. "If they disappear" he read on "then the child does not age. If it doesn't, their blood is normal. I looked hopefully down at the circle. Directly in the center of the circle there is… nothing. Not a single drop of blood. Yes.