I rested my head against the cool, hard glass of the window, and within seconds my eyelids had drifted shut.
Bright light. Bright light everywhere.
I belonged here—I could feel. I belonged in the bright white light.
Peaceful, calm—this was my end.
The light sparkled across my skin, enveloping me in a blanket of warmth.
I’d been here before, in a vision. Nicholas had said it was my end. And as I stood here in the bright light, I knew he was right. This is where I would end up…
Forever.
My eyes shot open, and for a moment I couldn’t figure out where I was. Somewhere dark. And warm. Then it dawned on me. I was in a car, headed to who knows where. I was also lying down on the seat, the leather pressing warmly against my cheek.
The whole light dream I had was making me freak out a little, especially because Nicholas had told me that the light vision I’d went into meant my future was dead. And now I was dreaming about it. That couldn’t be good.
From the front seats, Alex and Laylen were chatting about cars, like they were two normal guys, which I guess was a good thing—at least they weren’t fighting. But it was still strange to hear a normal conversation that didn’t center on Death Walkers, Foreseers, or the end of the world.
“No. There’s no way your GTO could beat my Camaro,” Alex was saying, sounding a little worked up. “Are you freaking kidding me with this?”
“No I’m not freaking kidding you with this,” Laylen replied calmly. “I bet you hands down that my car could take your car any day.”
“Bull,” Alex said. “You know I would win, you just won’t admit it.”
I decided that I’d rather be sleeping than listening to this. But right as I was shutting my eyes, Laylen said something that made me open them right back up.
“I’ll tell you what,” he said. “I’ll admit that you might be right, if you’ll admit that you like Gemma.”
“If I told you that then I’d be lying,” Alex said, sounding as if he meant it. “Well, at least not in the sense that you’re implying.”
Ouch, that stung.
They were silent. The only sound came from the rumble of the tires and the low hum of the song purring from the stereos speakers—“Epiphany” by Staind.
“Okay Alex,” Laylen said, in an ‘I’m-going-to-lay-it-out-for-you’ kind of way. “I think you like her. In fact I think you always have and always will. Now whether or not you’ll admit it is your problem. All I care about is that you lay off her. You can be a real jerk to her—to everyone really, but it’s worse for her because she’s new to feeling things.”
This conversation, for some reason, was making me feel very uncomfortable. But I didn’t know how to block it out. Cover my ears? Yeah, then they’d know I was awake and listening.
“You need to shut up,” Alex said, his anger blaring in his voice. “I don’t feel that way about her. Never have, never will.”
“Yeah, because you don’t care about anything,” Laylen told him. “You never have. Well, I take that back. You use to be normal until Gemma was sent away, then you basically just shut off. Maybe you should just think about why that is? Why would you change right when she left?”
“Because everyone will hurt you if you let them in,” Alex muttered as if he was quoting someone.
“What?” Laylen asked. “What does that mean?”
“Nothing. Just drop it.” Alex turned up the volume of the music, and the conversation was dropped.
I laid there for awhile with my eyes open, pondering everything. My feelings. My mom. What Alex had said. “Everyone will hurt you if you let them in.” I wondered if he really believed it.
I felt very strange, my emotions running all over the place, almost like the prickle was malfunctioning or something.
And maybe it was.
Maybe I was broken.
Chapter 26
When I woke up, the first thing I noticed was that the SUV was stopped. I sat up in the seat, wondering if we made it to wherever we were heading, or if something had happened. After blinking away my sleepy disorientation, I realized we were just at a gas station, getting gas.
Laylen was outside, pumping gas into the SUV, and Alex was nowhere in sight.
I stifled a yawn and then stretched, wondering what time it was. The sun was beating hotly from up in the sky, and the streets that bordered the gas station were