CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

::Cassie::

While Jake and Marco were out executing the plan, I left Ax in the barn while I went to my bathroom to wash my face. I soaked my skin in my wet cupped palms, then looked at the reflection in the mirror before me. Marco's accusations of fired-up psychomaniac were still stinging. I wondered how Rachel took all our suspicious looks in the past when we all simultaneously thought she was going to combust from the adrenaline rush of battles.

Cassie, you did the right thing. That plan is going to draw David out. You know it.

I switched off the running water, grabbed a towel to wipe my face and headed out of my room.

"Cassie?"

I jerked back to look at my mom at the dining table. She was doing the accounts for the clinic and looked surprisedly at me. "Are you going out? It's really late."

"Oh no," I said, hurriedly. "I was just mucking out the stables. I want to sing lullabies to the birds next."

My mom chuckled. "Don't be too late, honey."

"I won't," I said, fervently hoping that I wouldn't have to.

Just as I reached the barn entrance, a shadow passed by my front gate. I tiptoed to get a better look, and when the streetlights proved unhelpful, I edged closer to the gate.

"Who's there?"

"Oh, Cassie!" There was a sigh of relief. "Good God, don't you have a doorbell of sorts? I wasn't sure if I had to holler or something."

I unlocked the gate, feeling my heart beat a lot faster at the sight of Melissa Chapman. She handed the package over – it was a small box wrapped in brown paper. "Can you get Rachel to come out? I want to tear her hair out for making her run after her in this neighbourhood, which thank God, is fairly small."

"For some reason, she's really knocked out," I said, with a fake smile. "We had a bit of a pillow fight and she – uhh – just started dozing off after a while."

"It's early for a pillow fight," said Melissa, chuckling. "Anyway, I gotta run, can't stay too long out late like this."

"Hey, before you go," I said, clutching onto the package. "Umm, how do you know David?"

Melissa looked at me questioningly.

"Rachel talks to me sometimes about him..." I said. "And I swear she has a crush on him."

What? What did I just say?

Melissa gaped. "You're not serious!" She did look quite shocked, so I shrugged and said, "Oh well, just one of my lousy hunches. I'm just interested to know who this guy is."

Melissa let out a small giggle. "His mom hit it off with my mom at the local community centre where they do yoga together on weekday nights. So we go over to their house sometimes, and vice versa."

"How long ago was that?"

"Oh, a couple of months or so? When you started hanging out with Jake," said Melissa. She grinned in the dim light.

Had David lived through this life in this reality? Had he gone through the years in some twisted time sense in order to get to where he was now, making a sick joke out of befriending Rachel and torturing us? If it was really the case, that guy was beyond psychotic.

"Actually..." said Melissa, biting her lip. "I think he might reciprocate it."

"Really?" I stared at her.

"I've kind of suspected it all along, he's always looking at her! He's always like... asking her stuff and always calling me to arrange a gathering and, you know..." Melissa burst into little giggles.

I felt a little lighthearted as I spoke, "Melissa, do you think you could do me a favour?"

Melissa scrunched up her face. "Cassie, you and Rachel will owe me BIG time if you need me to do anything more for you two at this hour."

"Look, I'm sorry, but can you get David out for me? It's really, really urgent!"

Melissa raised her eyebrows. "What? Whatever for?"

"I, uhh..." I struggled to find a reason. Come on, Cassie, you're pretty good at last-minute stories. "Well, Rachel has really, really wanted to confess her love for some time!"

Okay. Rachel had better not kill me for this.

"What?" Melissa nearly shrieked.

"Shh! Cool it, will you!" I hissed. Then I nodded frantically. "I don't care if she's sleepy now, I'm going to wake her and then when he comes, I'll get her down as a surprise. Just tell him somebody wants to reveal a secret to him and he has to come."

"But why now?" asked Melissa, even though she was super excited.

"Because – because she's been upset today! That's why she came over... she said she feels like there's no way a guy is gonna like her because she's so un-feminine-like sometimes. And it's tough for her because she sees how relationships are like, you know, like with her parents, and she doesn't want to end up like them."

Wow, I really was getting quite good at this.

Melissa drew in a deep breath. "Okay, let me borrow your house phone then."

I hesitated. David would obviously not be at home. Crap, I had forgotten about that. "What if he's not home?"

Melissa laughed. "Don't worry, David's family is super into gadgets and stuff. His dad just got him this swanky cell phone. Oh my God. Who actually gets to carry a cell phone at this age, seriously?"

I heaved a sigh of relief. "Okay, sure."

I led her into the house, only to find that my mom was using the phone.

"Hang on, sweetheart," mouthed my mom.

I couldn't let Melissa talk to my mom only to find out that Rachel wasn't around, so I led her into the animal clinic to look at some of the animals. She was slightly fascinated, so I left her there for a while before I slipped into the barn to tell Ax and Loren that Melissa was here.

To my surprise, Loren was curled up in a hay bale, shaking very badly.

"She's been very upset," said Ax, worriedly. "She keeps saying that she wants to find Tobias and even tried to leave. I had to morph in order to stop her. Now she won't even look at me." He looked at the package in my hand. "What's that?"

I handed it over. "David's gift to Rachel."

Ax's eyes narrowed as he unwrapped it carefully. He opened the box. Then we both stared at its contents.

Content, to be specific. There was a miniature stuffed rat in the box.

I shuddered involuntarily.

"Tobias?" Loren's head snapped back to me.

"She's delirious," I said, looking back at Ax. "I'm going to get her some medicine."

"Tobias!" Loren grabbed at my wrist. "I had a dream about you. I was so scared!"

"Loren, please." I tried to untangle myself, but Loren only gripped tighter.

"I dreamt you were being taken away by an old man in heaven," whispered Loren. "He had long flowing robes. He was like the guardian of heaven or something." Her eyes were almost unfocused as she spoke. "He said he's getting tired of games. He wants to end it, but only the person who started it can end it. I'm not playing any games with him, Tobias, neither are you... are you? Don't play games with people in heaven, it's not fun..."

I was about to tug my hand out roughly when Ax responded, "Who was he?"

I stared at Ax incredulously, but he looked really surprised by Loren's words.

"I don't know..." Loren shrank back. I snatched my hand back as her grip slackened. "He's translucent. Wide eyes. He's like a sage, only he has strange yellowish mist around him. His face, actually..." Loren moaned. "Not even a face... I can't even see his limbs, it's just robes..."

"That's the Ellimist," I said, coldly.

"No," said Ax, at once. "No, it isn't."

"Why not? The Ellimist can assume any form. Is it Crayak then?" I asked, slightly impatiently.

"Attend to Melissa, Cassie. Let me think for a bit," said Ax.

I obliged, but kept turning back to stare at the shaking Loren and thoughtful Ax.

When I got back to the clinic, I found Melissa gone. I panicked slightly and went back into the house where my mom was just handing the phone over to Melissa, who thanked her.

I heaved a sigh of relief as my mother left. Clearly, the absence of Rachel had not been revealed.

After a short while, Melissa broke into a smile. "Hello, David?" She grinned at me. "Are you free?"

I gripped the nearest item, which was an antique porcelain vase my dad had got from a friend many years back. Not a great idea.

"Mm..." Melissa laughed coquettishly. "Somebody's got a secret to reveal, that's all."

I closed my eyes and prayed hard.