CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

I wake with a stranger's voice in my ears, the same stranger from my dream:

You've chosen your path. I hope you're ready to accept the consequences.

Too late, I recognise it.

Keon.

In my head.

The remnants of his voice fades into the morning. I struggle to understand it. While it's clear he has some sort of telepathy, the real terror is his words and what them mean. Somehow, he knows. He knows what I've been doing, what I've been thinking. He knows I'm not taking his advice; I'm not stopping.

And now: consequences.

My thoughts jump straight to Caden, a sick feeling churning in my gut. I want him here, before me. I want him tangible and real and safe. He's too far away, lost under too much mystery and confusion. I don't if he's hurting. I don't if he's alive. I don't know what my actions are doing, if anything.

Keon said consequences. What will be the consequence for this?

Suddenly I can't sit around any longer. Scott said they were doing everything they could and I trusted him. I trusted that, this time, the council knew what they were doing. I put myself on a ledge and trusted the wind not to blow.

Well, the wind's blowing.

I leave my room with all intention of getting ready and doing something, just going somewhere. I don't know where I'd start, where I'd look, or even how I'd get there. But anything feels better than waiting around.

But when I enter the dining room, I find Katherine sitting at the table, cradling a mug of coffee, looking dejected and all-together not well. She stares into the liquid as though it will give her answers, as though it will show her what she's missing.

I know what she's missing.

I pause, half twitching towards the door, fingers burning for the doorknob, while the other half battles with the thought of leaving her like this. Everyone else is gone. I'm the last one left. If I leave...

I sigh and take a seat opposite, resigning myself to the outcome of this decision. A piece of my heart flakes away as I come to completely comprehend my actions. I feel like I'm signing Caden's death certificate. It's irrational and unfounded, but the feeling sticks.

Please, be okay, just a little longer...

Katherine's silent.

I break the morning quiet. "She still loves you. You know, that right?"

Now Katherine looks up. For a few heartbeats, she just stares at me, leading me to wonder if maybe she was simply day-dreaming and I mistook it for sadness and regret.

"I know," she says at last and I find relief in knowing I wasn't wrong. "It just felt very final."

"It was also very sudden," I add. "She'll come back."

It's silent for a while. I stand up and make a quick cereal breakfast. My hands shake. When I return, Katherine says, "I suppose I should have seen it coming."

"How could you?" I ask around a mouthful of cornflakes.

Katherine sighs. "It's..." She shakes her head. "It's in her blood."

My spoon slips out of my hand and flops back into the bowl. The milk erupts in miniature tsunamis, splashing over the edges of the bowl. I hurry to grab a hand towel and wipe up the mess.

"What are you saying?" Though I want to ask, What do you know?

"Her father. He's first and foremost an Anarkk. Always has been." She says it like a fact. Like it's obvious. Like she's known for years.

"Thomas," I say. "How long have you known?"

"Awhile." She waves a hand, like it's no big deal. "The better question is, how long have you? The argument you had with Sarah was partly about him, was it not?"

I nod. "We found out when Sarah and I visited him. Before we got back into school." I don't explain further. She may not be related to Sarah by blood, but she's still her mother. She's still the person who raised her. I don't want to hurt her further by explaining how it all went down.

"I grew up under his care," I say instead. "You knew he was an Anarkk. Why didn't you something? Why didn't you stop it?"

"Because of who he was. He left it all behind when he met Louisa. He became neither Anarkk nor Avexyr. He lived his life as though he was human. For her. And I guess, for you, too."

My brain is a mess of information, strings of it curled and twisted into a painful knot. What did Thomas say in my vision?

Melissa was nothing to me.

I begin to ask how she knows so much about him, and then close my mouth. The farm. They spent years as neighbours.

My dreams rise up from the grey. No, not dreams. Memories. They're as clear as if I lived them yesterday, fresh and newly returned. Patrick's voice stands out, cutting through the rest.

Don't trust Thomas.

An image of my old Sydney house, newly vacated when Sarah and I returned from the backyard, flashes in front of my eyes. It's joined by an imagined one: the father who raised me, waiting for us to disappear down the hall, grabbing his things, moving swiftly out the front door without a look back, without even closing it.

A gust of wind blows the leaves of a nearby tree against the window. They scuffle against the glass like they want to get inside. Like hanging around as scenery is just a rouse. Like nature has ulterior motives. And abruptly I get the feeling that there's a lot more about my father I do not understand – that no one understands.

I finish eating. The clock reads 7:30. School starts in an hour.

Do I go?

Like she can sense my thoughts, Katherine says, "You should be getting ready to leave." She stands up and moves towards the sink.

I hesitate, turning around in my chair. "What do you know about Keon?"

She visibly stiffens. "Not much." She turns on the tap and starts rinsing. "I know that he heads all Anarkk operations. I know that he got the position through manipulation and back-stabbing. I know that he's dangerous, and a liar."

"My father knew him – when I was a kid. Probably before I was born."

She's trying to be nonchalant, but I can see how her muscles tense when I say it. "Your father?"

"Michael."

She's silent for a moment as she turns off the tap and places her mug down. "How do you know this?"

"My memories. They're coming back to me in dreams. I had one last night."

"What was it about?"

I turn back around in my seat and rest my hands on the table. "We were at the farm. Packing up to leave. Patrick had warned my father that something was coming. Then Keon showed up."

Katherine moves back around the table to sit opposite me. She lowers herself into her chair carefully. I know she remembers; it's written all over her face.

My stomach twists. I was sure of the fact that my dreams were memories, but up until this point, it was, at it's core, just speculation. Now I know. Somehow it makes it all feel different.

"He and Michael moved away to talk but I overheard them. They acted as if they knew each other. And I mean like, knew each other. Like they had some past together. Keon said that Michael was forgetting who he was. He said that he was the son of William. Who's William?"

Katherine stares at me. Then she says, "Your grandfather," and stands up. She collects my bowl before I can object and places it in the sink.

It's a non-answer and we both know it.

I blurt, "Keon's in my head."

She just looks at me.

I continue. "His voice was. This morning. He said I'd chosen my path and that he hoped I was ready for the consequences. It's the same word he used in that note I found at the intercept. Consequences. Caden is the consequence, isn't he?"

Now Katherine purses her lips, seeming angry. At first I think she's angry at me, but when I see she's not looking in my direction, I realise it's directed somewhere else entirely.

"Go to school, Melissa," she says. She heads out of the room. "I'll deal with this."

-:-:-:-:-

After school, I get the bus home. I hear talking when I get inside and quietly shut the door behind me. The conversation seems to come from the lounge room.

"After he went missing, you assured me that she'd be safe. You assured me you were watching for threats." This is distinctly Katherine.

"We can't stop a threat if it's inside her head." Ethel. "We have no way of disconnecting the link he has to her."

"But you can make sure she's not being watched. The only reason Keon would have reached out to her like that was if he knew all of her movements and decisions."

"Then clearly there's nothing I could do about it. If he has that kind of knowledge, he's either put a bug on her person or is using extraordinary methods."

"You mean supernatural methods."

I come around the corner in time to see Ethel fix a meaningful stare at Katherine.

"Melissa," Katherine says, surprised.

Ethel stands. Behind her, the young blonde who visited last time sits on the lounge. She stares in my direction.

"What's going on?" I ask. "What are you doing here?" I'm not trying to be impolite, but it comes out that way.

"We're here to help contact Lauren," Ethel says and I think, It didn't sound like it. "We need to disable her."

"Disable her? She's not a machine. You can't just turn her off."

Ethel bows her head apologetically. "Bad word choice. I meant save her from Keon's influence so as to eliminate the threat she poses."

I cross my arms. "How?"

Ethel smiles. "Simple. Annalise is telepathic. You tell her about Lauren, show her photos so she knows who she's looking for, and she can relay any message we need."

I take a guess that when she says Annalise, she means the woman sitting on the couch.

"And what then?"

Ethel looks sideways at Katherine. Katherine says, "Then we meet with her. We talk with her."

"And if it doesn't go the way we want it?"

I want to hear them say it.

Somewhat reluctantly, Ethel says, "Then we leave. No harm will come to Lauren."

I nod. It wasn't a promise, but it was good enough. "There's photos of Lauren on her facebook. I can pull them up. But I'm not sure what I can tell you about her that will be helpful."

"I just need a setting," the blonde – Annalise – says. Her voice is deeper than I expected; it doesn't quite match up with her face. "If I can envision her somewhere she's likely to be, it makes it easier to find her."

"What are you going to tell her?"

Ethel answers. "We're going to tell her a location to meet and that we need to talk. That we have something of interest to her. And that she is to come alone."

I take a breath and think it all through. With any luck, it will go as planned. I pray it will go as planned.

"Alright. Let's do it."

A/N

Chapters 28, 29 and 30 are all free to read on Radish. I've been sick this week, so chapter 31 probably won't be up on radish until next Saturday. 

Anyway, I hope everyone's week went well!

- Shaye xx