"Caleb," he said and stood to shake hands with him. "I couldn't be prouder of you or happier for you."
Caleb sucked on his lip for just a second before speaking. "Even though I'm supposed to be locked up right now?"
"Yes… Well, we heard the Visionary put on quite a show." He looked over to his wife. "But you know, I know that if my situation were yours, I'd do the same and accept my consequences. I'm getting pretty good at it," he said and sighed.
"Sir," I said softly. "Please make sure that someone gets me the scrolls. I really need to see them. There are things…" I chose my words carefully, not knowing how far his being my ally would go. "I'm hoping we can work on some things."
He looked intrigued and equally horrified of that idea, but nodded and bowed slightly. Then the whole table did the same, but no one kissed my hand and they kept their smiles in place so I was mostly ok with it.
"You're a funny girl," Caleb said as we walked away, "but what on earth could have been that funny to them all?"
"Are you doubting my ability to entertain?" I laughed and we sat down with our family.
Then that same voice I'd heard before came back to me.
You're making good progress. You really are a magnificent leader. But don't let your guard down. They won't stop until all hope is lost to their side.
I looked behind me and scanned the faces. Why couldn't I find who was speaking? No one looked suspicious, but they were just hiding it well. I should be able to find the one who was freaking speaking into my mind!And Caleb hadn't heard the voice. He was still talking to his dad and would have surely turned in alarm if he'd heard what I heard. I turned back in my chair and heard him again.
How's your father?
He spoke low, like a warning instead of being social.
"What's wrong, Maggie?" Jen asked from across the table.
"I don't…know."
Caleb turned to me then, feeling my anxiety and hearing my thoughts. "What is it? What voice?"
"A guy. Someone here, he keeps speaking to me. He just asked me how my father…was…" I gasped as I remembered something. The time that I'd talked to Dad from Caleb's cell on the roof, he said I had a package there postmarked from Florida. I assumed it was Chad because there was no return address, but he would have definitely wanted me to have his new address. It wasn’t from him… And then I'd had that vision with that guy in front of Dad's house…oh, God, no…
Caleb took my hand, pulling me up, and Jen scrambled after us he led me to the hall then right to the stairwell to the roof. We scrambled the many steps to the top and emerged out of breath, but not from exertion, from terror.
Caleb dialed my father's phone number and listened as I paced in front of him. Jen was wondering what was going on, since she wasn't in our thoughts she didn't know, but I couldn't bear to explain it out loud.
I heard my father's voice. "Hello? Caleb?" he said quickly.
"Jim," Caleb sighed and looked at me with a little smile, "here's Maggie."
"Dad," I said as I practically jerked the phone from Caleb's hand to hear the voice for myself.
"Hey, baby girl." He sounded fine, happy even. "How's everything going?"
"Good, um…I was just calling to check on you."
"Ah, I'm fine."
I breathed out a sigh. "That's good. How's Bish?" Jen's head jerked toward me, but I pretended I didn't see it.
"He's pretty darn good," he said and I heard the pride in his voice. "He's been on a few job interviews and it's looking really promising."
"That's good. Um…you didn't open that package I got, did you?"
I held my breath, praying he would say he had and it was a sweatshirt.
"Yeah, I did. There was nothing in it, just a blank sheet of paper."
Caleb and I looked at each other in confusion. "A blank sheet of paper?"
"Yeah. I've got it right…here." I heard him rustling papers. "Nothing, just…wait… There's words."
"What?"
"There are words appearing on the paper."
"Dad, what…"
He made a choked sound, like he was terrified. "Maggie, what's going on?"
"What do the words say, Dad?"
"They say…you shouldn’t have left your father behind. Maggie, why- Ah!" he gasped and started breathing hard. "Maggie, something smells funny."
"What do you mean?" I said hysterically. "What does it smell like?" I saw Jen cover her mouth with her hand behind Caleb.
"It smells like…gas. Oh, no… They're trying to kill me, Maggie," he said with a calm that chilled my blood.
Caleb took the phone from me and started talking to my father. "Get out of the house, Jim! Now!"
He said something else about leaving, something about Bish. Jen came and hugged me to her, though she had no idea what was going on really, she knew it was something bad and that I was upset. I clutched her like a lifeline as I tried to catch my breath. Caleb ordered and yelled around me, but the words escaped my comprehension. Then he hung up the phone and dialed a new number and started yelling at them, too.
When he got off the phone he took me from Jen. He framed my face with his hands, his harsh breaths blowing over my face. "Breathe, Maggie," he ordered gruffly.
"I have to leave. I have to go," I wheezed and cracked through my plea.
"Breathe, baby," he said softer.
I sucked in a breath that choked me, but I got a few breaths in and calmed enough to listen to him. "He's fourteen hours away. You'd never make it there in time. I told him to get out of the house and get Bish. Uncle Ken wasn't able to leave until today, so I called him and he's going to get your dad and make sure he's ok. He'll be fine." I whimpered, but Caleb wasn't done. "Do you hear me? He'll be fine."
A tear escaped the corner of my eye and I cursed it, but it was Caleb's undoing. He pulled me to his chest and wrapped his arms all the way around me, pressing me to him. He shushed me and murmured things to me to keep me calm and together. I was this close to a meltdown.
"Let's go inside," he said into my hair after some time. "You're shivering."
I was shivering, but it seemed silly to worry about being cold when your father could possibly be dead. But I let Caleb tow me inside, all the way down the bottom of the stairs as he explained to Jen what had happened. I needed to pull myself together, so I pulled Caleb to a stop.
"Yes," he agreed and looked at me sadly. "You can't let them know that we've caught on. I don't know what they’ll do, or how they pulled that stunt, but we need to act normal."
I nodded. "You're right."
"I'll go so we don't all walk in together," Jen offered. She hugged me hard. "I'm so sorry, Maggie."
"Jim and Bish are fine," Caleb reminded her harshly.
"Of course they are," she said and smiled at me before making her way out of the heavy door and down the hallway. I sat down on the bottom step, no longer able to hold myself on shaking legs."Here," Caleb said and sat next to me. He pulled me under his arm and ran his fingers over my cheek to keep his healing touch on me. "I'm so sorry, baby."
"This is too far," I said and heard my voice crack with anger. "This is too far, Caleb. It was bad enough messing with us, but my dad? He didn't do anything to them and had nothing to do with this."
"I know."
We sat there for a few minutes more and Caleb looked at me helplessly. "Are you alright enough to go back out? It's ok if you're not."
"No, let's go." I wiped under my eyes one more time and groaned. "Do I look all splotchy?"
He tried not to smile, but failed. He took my face in his hands and rubbed my cheeks with his thumbs. "No, you're not splotchy…whatever that means." He blew air across my face, focusing on my eyes. Any other time and I would have melted into a puddle at his feet. "There. Now you just look flushed, like you've been seriously kissed."
I nodded. "Ok."
"Maggie…" He looked down at something on the floor. "I wish there was something I could do. I should have known they might try something, but I honestly thought they'd be safe there without us."
"I know that," I told him. "You did do something. Your uncle's helping, at least you tried to do something. I was the one who couldn't stop being hysterical enough to think."
He shook his head to argue with me, then said. "He's your dad. I'll go call Uncle Ken in a little bit and make sure everything's fine. We need to get back in there though."
I nodded my head slowly and wrapped my arm around his for support. How was I supposed to pretend that everything was fine when my father could be dead this second and I had no idea either way?
When we came back in, Caleb's family saw us first. They looked like they'd been looking for us and when they saw us, they smiled and gave us a cursory glance before looking away, effectively dismissing our absence as making out just like Caleb had said. I hid my face in Caleb's shoulder to hide the tears that already wanted to come again.
The Watsons stood around the fireplace and watched us cross the room. I tried not to look at them. If they wanted to see if their plan had come into play yet, they were sorely out of luck. I wasn't playing along.
He took me to sit at the end of the table by Kyle and Lynne. We sat, but Kyle and Lynne were in their own little bubble together, oblivious to us or anyone else as they whispered into each other's face and ears. Lynne reached up to playfully slap Kyle's jaw and when she did I saw it. On the inside of her right wrist was the tattoo with Kyle's name. They'd mutualized sometime last night. Everyone had freaked because I got a tattoo and I was human, but Lynne had one, so it must be something new to add to the imprints.