Hiding - Chapter 6
A/N:
*Jo's POV*
I didn't even have a chance to tell Danny. His phone went off right after I got the text; it was Lacey calling him. He answered it, ducking out of the room and heading off to the guest room.
"Are you going to tell him?" Tyler texted.
"Lacey just called him, so I don't know," I replied. I almost forgot dinner, and when my mom called up to us, I walked down but didn't see Danny.
"Is he upstairs?" My mom wondered. I shrugged and went back upstairs to see what was happening. I knocked on the guestroom door and Danny opened it slowly. His aura was the color of blood and I stepped back quickly. He looked up at me.
"Someone posted the video to YouTube under the user name DannyDesai-TheSocio," he said. I acted alarmed, only because I knew I would have too.
"Did Lacey see?" I asked and he nodded.
"What happened?"
"She broke up with me. She thinks I filmed us and posted the video," he said.
"Why would she think that?" I gasped.
"Apparently whoever opened the account sent her a message, pretending to be me. She said that I've lied so much about other things that she can't tell when I'm telling the truth and when I'm lying," he said.
"Jo?" My mom called up and I sighed.
"I know this is a bad time, but… my mom has dinner ready." I said quietly. Danny nodded, tossing his phone onto the bed and closing the door.
"I'll eat with you," he said softly. He followed me downstairs and I could see that my dad was sitting at the table already. Luckily, I texted him about my hair before the melodrama began, so he didn't have a blow up. While I dealt with my mom and dad's comments about how I'd changed my hair, I noticed Danny staying unusually silent and subdued. Part of me felt really sorry for him, but the other part was angry.
He got himself into this mess by keeping it a secret. If he knew there were pranksters following him and Lacey around, why would they continue to see each other? I thought to myself as I poked at my mashed potatoes.
You're just angry at him because you still like him, a sneaky little voice in my head answered and I quickly shoved it away.
"Danny, you're awfully quiet tonight," my dad noted, taking a bite of salad. Danny glanced up. He'd eaten much of his food.
"I'm tired, that's all. All of this stuff happening and my mom and everything," he said.
"Well it won't last much longer," my dad replied confidently, "I can't really say more than that, but you won't have to worry." Dinner was pretty quiet, Danny didn't feel like talking and after all the conversation about my hair finally died down, we ate mostly in silence. Danny finished early and excused himself, leaving to go back upstairs. I didn't bug him when I was finished and focused on finishing the remainder of my makeup work for school.
People at school were freaking out about the video, though. I ended up logging out of all my apps just to avoid the notifications popping up every couple of seconds. I got ready for bed and was in my pajamas when I knocked on the door to the guest room.
"Danny? Do you want to talk or should I leave you alone?"
"I thought you were mad at me," he replied.
"I am mad at you. I'm mad that you lied to me," I said to the door. He opened it. He was wearing a pair of baggy flannel pants and gray t-shirt.
"I told you, I wanted to tell you. Lacey didn't see any reason too and since she had way more to lose than I did in the situation, I just… did what she asked," he said.
"Okay, well I'm still mad because you didn't tell me," I said and Danny sighed.
"I understand your reasoning behind it but that doesn't stop me from being mad at you. How can you say that I'm the most important person to you and then you lie about this?" Danny studied me for a moment.
"You're mad at me but you're talking to me," he said, "are you mad at Lacey?"
"Yes I'm talking to you and no, I'm not really mad at her." Danny turned and gave me a strange look.
"How can you be mad at me and not her?"
"Because, Danny, we're supposed to be best friends, right? That's what you said, right? Well, Lacey and I aren't really good friends anymore so she has no reason to tell me anything. I don't tell her everything either, so I can't get mad at her for doing something I do too. You are not acting like a good friend and I don't care that you two just broke up, that doesn't magically cancel out any of the previous things you've done. I just wanted you to know that I'm sorry if you feel heartbroken or anything. I still expect an apology for the lies, though," I said. I turned and walked toward my room, leaving Danny standing there and looking both baffled and frustrated.
"How can you feel sorry for me and be mad at me all at once?" He wondered.
"Because I have emotions, Danny! I can feel two things at once about someone," I replied from my bedroom door.
"I don't understand girls at all, all this time in juvie has made everything even more confusing," he grumped before closing the door. I didn't expect an apology right away. I knew he would sit there and stew in anger about everything.
I slid into bed and turned off the lamp, wondering what Sarita, Phoebe, Scott and Archie and everyone else would do at school tomorrow. Especially how they would treat Lacey.
A thick, gray fog enveloped a field of lavender. I stood in the middle of the field, turning to look around. There was nothing but purple flowers and mist in all directions. I felt an urge to move, so I walked forward. I could hear something moving in the mist.
"Alexander?" I wondered, looking around.
I'm here, he said. I couldn't see him, but I could feel him.
"Is this what you mentioned earlier? About my abilities changing?" I asked.
Indeed.
I looked around, unable to find any source for his voice. I walked until I could see the vague outline of a tree, shrouded in thick, dark green leaves. Alexander appeared there, his outline indistinct and bright, with his green eyes in the middle. He wasn't as luminous as he normally seemed, so it was easier to look at him.
"What exactly is going to happen?" I wondered.
I'm not permitted to tell you in a straightforward manner, Alexander noted. I sighed.
This is part of what you agreed to during your coma, you knew that there would be changes and that the transition would be difficult, he explained.
"How do I use the information from the auras to help me? I'm not going to tell them what I see!"
It will take time and practice; this isn't something you will master overnight. I'm here to warn you, however, that the change that is currently taking place within you will be rather jarring and difficult to get used too. I will be there when you wake up to help you.
"So, when I wake up, something will be different?"
Yes, this is sort of like… a waiting room, for your transition. I sat beneath the tree with Alexander. I didn't feel anything or sense anything odd or different.
"Should I tell Danny about what I can do?" I wondered. Alexander drifted around in the air as if he were floating.
Can you trust him? Do you think he will believe you? Will he tell others? Alexander wondered.
"I trust him with my secrets, but he doesn't apparently trust me with all of his. He says he's protecting me," I said. Alexander smiled through our thoughts.
He is protecting you, he said. I jerked up.
"You know what he's protecting me from? What is it?"
I can't tell you that, it is not my secret to reveal. All I can say is that he is telling the truth in that regard. I sighed in frustration and Alexander said,
You are about to wake up, Jo Masterson. Be ready.
The edges of the landscape began to fade away in thickening layers of fog. The fog got closer and closer until I couldn't see anything but gray in all directions.
"Alexander?" I woke myself up saying his name. I blinked. The sun was not up; I glanced at my alarm to see that it was 4am.
My heart pounded loudly in my ears and goose bumps prickled up and down my arms. The hair rose up on my arms and neck. Alexander? I wondered in my thoughts, feeling a sudden rush of nervous adrenaline.
I'm here.
I'm scared about what's about to happen. I have a bad feeling, I told him.
The ability itself is neither evil nor good, it is ambivalent. What matters is how you choose to use it, he replied. The room suddenly got very cold; I could see my breath puffing out in front of me.
"Are you sure?" I hissed out loud, pulling my covers up to my chin.
Yes.
"Oh God, this is some sixth sense crap, isn't it?" I said out loud, shivering uncontrollably. Alexander didn't answer, which I took to mean that it was.
"Oh God, oh God, oh God…." I muttered, my eyes frantically checking the corners and shadows of my bedroom. It was too dark in some of the corners to tell anything. I sat there for a long time, waiting for something to happen. I'd almost given up, but the temperature was still cold, when out of the corner of my eye, a shadow shifted closer to the bed.
I whipped my head around and stared at it. It moved closer. I could only see shadows until it stepped into the moonlight.
Tara Desai. At the foot of my bed with a black ligature mark around her neck and blood in her eyes and bruises across the side of her face.
I screamed as loud as I could and she dissipated slowly, the last thing visible, her bloody eyes. I dove under the covers, muttering out loud,
"Alexander you should have warned me!"
It took a grand total of five seconds for my bedroom door to fly open. Danny stood there, looking wide awake and alarmed.
"What?" He demanded. He looked around suddenly, his eyes narrowed in suspicion when he could see his breath puff out in front of him.
I looked at him from my bed. My mom soon appeared behind him, looking concerned. The temperature was still cold, but it was quickly warming up.
"Jo?" My mom wondered.
"It was a dream… I'm sorry," I said, rubbing my face.
"You're okay then?" My mom said.
"Yeah, I'm sorry for waking you up," I apologized. She smiled.
"It's not your fault," she said, "You two go back to sleep, okay?" Danny nodded and went back to the guest room. My mom closed my bedroom door and walked away. I sat there in bed for almost two minutes before my bedroom door opened again and Danny stood there, looking at me strangely.
"A dream?" He asked.
"Yes, a dream," I said. He walked in and sat on my bed.
"Why was it so cold in here?" He wondered. I looked down at my covers, unable to answer.
"Jo, what is going on with you? You've been acting weird lately," he said.
"Nothing is going on," I started to say but Danny shook his head.
"Yes, something is going on. You can't get mad at me for lying to you and then turn around and lie to me!"
"This is different," I said.
"How?"
"You would never believe me, you would think I was crazy," I explained.
"We won't know that if you don't give me a chance to redeem myself," he said promptly.
"Danny… you don't understand. This is completely different, it's…it might make you decide to never associate with me again," I said. He frowned.
"The only way I would never be around you again is if you murdered Regina and have been framing me this whole time," he said. I grinned hesitantly. He smiled.
"Well that's not it," I said.
"I figured it wasn't. Give me a chance, please?" I could see his aura; it was brightening back to its vibrant flame red and yellow.
"I don't know, I mean, you're going to be dealing with all of this crap at school with the video and everything and it's probably a bad idea to just put more stuff on top of that stuff on top of your mom trying to protect you, and…"
"JO." I stopped talking. Danny sat there, looking both amused and frustrated.
"I can handle it. Give me a chance to handle it!" I sighed.
"Okay, I'll tell you, but before you decide whether or not to believe me, let me explain it all, okay?" He nodded slowly.
I started by explaining a little bit about what I'd experienced in my coma, about the lake made of crystals and the light and Alexander.
"Who is Alexander?" Danny asked.
"More like what is Alexander. That's just what I call it, but it doesn't really have a gender since it's made of light," Danny looked incredulous.
"I know how it sounds, okay? Would I make something as weird as this up?"
"Okay…I'm listening," Danny said. I explained that Alexander was like a guide who had been helping me since my coma, and that as my guide, he had prepared me for changes.
"Changes?" Danny wondered.
"Yes, it gets weirder," I said. I told him about auras and being able to see them and to instantly know what they meant for each person. Danny stared at me like I'd grown another head.
"I'm not making this up, I swear!" I hissed.
"So, you see rings of light around people called auras?"
"Yes, Alexander said that they revealed the inner workings of a person's soul," I said, "only I can't see my own aura and I can't see aura's of people in photos and on television, it screws it up somehow."
Danny was silent. After a moment he murmured,
"Can you see mine?" I nodded slowly.
"What does it look like?"
"Its… you look like you're on fire. You're surrounded by bright red and yellow and bits of orange." Danny sat there gazing at me curiously.
"What does that mean?"
"It means that you feel everything very intensely, that you're passionate about whatever it is you do. You're clever and cunning and you understand others better than they understand themselves, sometimes," I said. Danny smiled slowly.
"That's… a really good description," he said finally.
"What about this dream you had? What does that have to do with auras?" I sighed.
"Well, it's this other thing I can do, now," I replied. Danny frowned slightly. He hadn't said whether or not he thought I was telling the truth or lying about the aura thing.
"So you can see auras and do something else?" I nodded.
"Like what?" I was even less eager to share this one.
"Do you dream about the future?" He wondered. I shook my head.
"I screamed because your Aunt Tara was standing at the foot of my bed, staring at me."