Defiance (Significance #3)(39)

"That's true, I guess," I conceded to appease her. "But you're not even of imprint age yet."
She shrugged and went to go, brushing my arm as she went. I saw a scene of her past and I braced myself for something unpleasant. This vision was grimy and I could almost taste a salty feel on the air.She'd been spending an awful lot of her time skipping classes and lying to her family. She flunked her first year of college already and had quite a bit of extracurricular activity that involved guys. Lots of guys. I almost threw up in my mouth as I scrambled to be free of the vision.
"How did you do that?" she screeched.
"I'm the Visionary," I said, and boy was I sick of saying it. I walked on down the hall with Caleb, Bish and Jen following me. It was time. It was time for everyone to see the vision I had when I became the Visionary and it was time they knew what had been done to their last Visionary.
We came into the ballroom and I immediately sought out Dad. I heard his thoughts as he poured coffee. "There he is, Bish," I told him.
Bish looked at him and is mind warred with him. He wanted to see him, but felt guilty for being envious. "Just go," I said. "You'll be fine."
He gave me a twisted sidelong glance and then made his way to Dad and his new leading lady. Dad still seemed awkward, but in an excited way. Caleb said he was going to find his dad so we could once again spill an ugly heaping of bad news on people.
Jen stayed with me and watched as Bish got up close and personal to the newest imprinted couple. I looped my arm through hers and sighed with her in sympathy. I'd see firsthand, and felt it, what it was like to be kept away from the one thing your body thought it needed most. She closed her eyes tightly when Fiona's fingers discreetly reached out to brush my dad's.
"Jen," I started softly. "I need to tell you something."
"I love him," she blurted and then looked at me. Her eyes brimmed with wet sorrow. "I do, I love him. It's not just Maria that I'm worried about. If we imprint and your vision comes true, he'll die, too. Don't you understand that? I can't let that happen."
"But you may not have a choice," I implored. "I really need to say something to you and I need you to listen to me and not try to just brush it away."
"If it's about trying to get me to touch Bish, then save it." She pulled away gently. "I'm sorry, I know you just want to help and I'm…so grateful for what you did for me. Caleb was right," she smiled, "one night was so worth it. But I can't hurt him. Anymore of this and it will hurt us both. I have to stop this."
Then she turned and walked right to Jonathan. He smiled in surprise at her and swung his arm out for her to pass him in line for breakfast. I peeked at Bish, wondering if he saw. He did. 
Great.
I swiftly bolted to him in as lady like a way as I could and stopped him from pounding Jonathan into dust. "Bish," I said and put a hand on his chest to stop him. "Think about it. You're just overly upset because your body is mad that she's with him."
"You're daggum right it is!"
"It's just the imprint. It makes you feel over protective. Jen is just hurting and trying to figure it out. If you make a scene right now, you're going to be moving backward, not forward."
He sighed in a grumble. "So I'm supposed to just sit around and watch her do things to piss me off on purpose and pretend it doesn't bother me?"
"For now? Yes. Please. I will figure this out for you, but right now we have some seriously messed up stuff going down and that has to be dealt with first."
He lifted his hands to the back of his head and closed his eyes. "Fine. I won't touch pretty boy."
"Thank you."
"I'm going to…uh…" His eyes fastened on Maria. He smiled. I looked over to see, too. Maria was throwing grapes into the air catching them in her mouth. Then giggling to herself as no one else was at the table with her. Bish left without another word and walked right to her. I watched and could hear their conversation in their mind.
"Hey, Maria. You're pretty good at that, kid," he said.
"I know," she spouted. "This boy at school taught me. But then he pulled my ponytail on the playground the next day, so I'm not really friends with him anymore."
"Why did he pull your ponytail?"
"Momma says boys are mean when they like you," she whispered in a disgusted voice. "But I think Momma's been misinformed."
Bish barked out a laugh and I covered my mouth so mine didn't slip through and people thought I was nuts for talking to myself.
"Well, your mom is right, sort of. Boys are mean sometimes when they like a girl, but they are also nice when they like a girl, too."
"So you like my momma? That's why you're so nice to her?" she asked nonchalantly.
"I do like your momma. Is that ok?"
"Yeah, totally! Maybe you should be mean to her," she mused and threw another grape into the air catching it easily, "then I bet she'd really like you."
"Maybe," Bish told her with a sad smile.
It seems to be working so well for her.
I jumped out of Bish's mind and looked for Caleb. We needed to show everyone the visions I'd had. We had to put an end to this once and for all. For some reason, the visions had stopped themselves from coming or something always seemed to come up. I didn't understand why, but I couldn't let that happen again.
Caleb and Rodney were discussing something by the door. Rodney was saying that he'd been following Ruth and she was in trouble. Caleb looked my way, but I was already coming to them.
"Come on," Rodney said and led the way. "I was suspicious because she never came down for supper last night, so this morning I went to check on her because you seemed so concerned about her before. But when I got to her room, it was empty. Like empty as in, her stuff was gone, too."
"What?" I asked horrified. What did they do to her?
We took the stairs two at a time and he directed us to a door. We opened it to find it empty."Where is she?" I asked him in a flurry. "Where is she!"
"Calm down," Caleb soothed and looked around before taking me into the hall. "We'll find her."
"How?" I asked in my hysteria.
"Well, she's the only Watson that you could hear thoughts for. Look for her." Caleb was calm and looking at me with certainty. I took a deep breath and held it for a few seconds before blowing it out slow and long. I could find people I focused on, I'd done it before.
I remembered helping the guy from the ice cream place in California and his mother. And just like that, there they were in front of my eyes. She was shopping for him, trying to get him to let her buy him a button shirt. He laughed and shook his head and then he pointed to a 'Cabs Here!' t-shirt instead. She rolled her eyes and took the shirt to the counter. He smiled as her put his arm around her shoulder and squeezed her. They were still in California, they never went home, and they were wonderfully happy and fine. Both worked at the diner together and they had a little crappy apartment that they loved.
I pulled back feeling guilty for eavesdropping, but also getting caught up in something else when I was on a mission. Caleb looked at me with his favorite line sitting on the tip of his tongue. "Don't say it," I told him.
"What? You are amazing."
I sighed, really not feeling amazing right now. I focused on Ruth, how she told us all of her family's secrets that she could and tried to help us. I felt something. Something ticked its way into the side of my brain and I turned my head as if to focus. I let all my senses go and just felt for her.
"Maggie?" I heard and shushed whoever it was. "Maggie, where are you going?"
"What?" I opened my eyes to find my feet moving.
"Is it happening again?" Caleb asked, referring to our night of visions.
"No," I answered and stopped. "I'm in control, I just…I don't know. Let's just see where this goes, ok?"
"After you," he said, and he and Rodney followed me. We went all the way to the roof as my feet seemed to know the way. To where, I didn't know yet. We passed the greenhouse and Rodney saw the blanket and pillow there.
"Been sleeping up here, huh? You little rule breaker."
"Why do you automatically assume it was me?" Caleb said. I listened to them as my feet treaded softly over the rooftop. "Could've been Kyle. He's the one who always got us into trouble." 
"Because Kyle's not that romantic," Rodney goaded in a dreamy voice and I heard scuffling, like they were play fighting.
Boys.
We came to the edge of the roof and it seemed to stop. But my feet didn't. I gasped right as I felt Caleb's arm go around my waist from behind and catch me. I turned my face to find his there and bumped his nose against my cheek.
"Why don't you let my feet take over," he said breathlessly. "She's apparently in town if it's leading you out this way."
"Ok," I sighed. "How do we get down?"
He released me, but not before making sure Rodney had a hold on me, just in case, and went to the wall right under a low roof, the last rooftop of the palace. He reached around the edge, over the huge drop from the rooftop to the town below, and felt along the wall. His hand came back with a rope and he pulled it until I heard the squeak of the lift he was summoning. Great. Of course the way down had to be a frigging wooden elevator over a huge plunge to our deaths.
Caleb chuckled at my thought and gave me a look. "You are not scared of heights."