Two Days Later
My eyes snap open. How long was I out? The night was pretty long.
I'm not exactly sure anymore.
I get out of bed, rubbing the tiredness from my eyes. That's when I feel what feels like a Post-It on my forehead. Upon removal, I find a message, written in Cameo's telltale, teeny, loopy handwriting.
"hey delaina. left to train with alex. god that sucks. hurts most of the time. tell vlad im with him, kay? thanks. cameo" She's the only person I know who could get a message that long on that tiny of a Post-It. I stick the note in my pocket.
"Delaina?" It's not Cameo, the Post-It has informed me of that. It's not a girl at all. I turn around.
"Where are you going?" It's Michael. On my bed. How did I not see him? How long did he stay for? Damn me and knocking out early. Damn him and his wanting to stay.
"Outside. Wait, no... I've got to get ready. You, get out."
"What? Why?" He looks surprised. "You had no problems with me staying before. Why now?"
"Because you're invading my space. Now leave. I'll see you at Alex's meeting. Bye bye now." I pull him up, open my door, give him a kiss on the cheek, and push him out of my door.
I feel like screaming. God, he's annoying. Michael's nice and all. But he's always there. Always calling. When we were all in Chicago it wasn't so bad. I had parents to answer to. A home to go home too. Homework. School. We could sneak off, have our fun....and we could then go home. Michael was the one who said we were dating. That was never it. It was just some harmless fun, is all. When I say harmless, however, I mean fun that won't get either of us pregnant. Hee.
"Damn, girl, you went THAT far?"
Shit. Stupid Vlad. He's always here. Either he's bothering me or he's hanging with Cameo. Most of the time he does it at the same time.
"No. Shut up."
"You can't fool a telepathic, you know... Anyway, have you seen Cameo?" He looks around the room a bit nervously before sitting down on a bean bag sofa across from the room's only TV.
I may not be a mind reader, but I certainly know what he's thinking. He's been doing that look around nervously bit since we were kids. How is a mindreader so easy to read?
"She went with Alex. He called her out early, so he could train her."
"Oh... okay..." he says.
"It's okay. SO what if Alex doesn't let you help? You like her, she likes you. And why didn't you tell me she kissed you?"
He looks embarrassed. "Because... you'd laugh and think it was funny."
"I probably would." I say through laughter. "But you're my best friend, I love ya, and I've got no problem talking about significant others like we're schoolgirls."
I manage to get a smile out of him. "Okay, fine. I will talk to you about stuff like this. But you've got to do that with me too, alright? Now what was all that you were screaming in your head. He's annoying, he's always there.."
"Well, he is! He was sleeping in my bad right next to me, without my knowledge. It was downright retarded." I counter at him. "The Michael you grew up with is not the guy I mess around with."
"Well, Delaina, maybe, just maybe, you've gotta think about more than just messing around." Vlad says knowingly. Please. I'm older than him. Whatever.
"Alex is good for you. And you know it. " Vlad says even more knowingly.
"He doesn't understand my need to be unattached. All he understands is what he researches and reads and what he knows. I couldn't ever trust him with matters of the heart." I'm bordering on ranting. I best shut up now.
"You'd be surprised." Vlad says simply.
Suddenly, my door bangs open. Speak of the devil. It's Alex. And he does not look happy. Or even angry. he looks...eeriliy freaked out.
"Please tell me Cameo is sleeping soundly on her bed, completely unharmed... Please?" He climbs the ladder attached to my bed and checks. "Dammit."
"What the hell is going on, Alex?" I have never heard Vladimir Jovanovik sound so worried in my entire life. He really does like he, does he?
"Delaina, shut up." I hear him say. "Alex, what the hell?" Alex looks a cross between guilty and freaked out.
"What happened?" I break in, before Vlad kills him.
"I'm not exactly sure. I wake up from this dream I can't remember and all I hear through the darkness is this really thin, small, pale girl with a thin, small, pale voice saying 'Help me.' really tearfully over and over until it suddenly stops. But it doesn't stop cold, something stifles it. That's when this really low, gravelly, scary movie type voice breaks in and says 'Don't ever come after her,' and I hear a really loud thump noise and the little voice dies out. And then this light fills the whole room, then everything in the room turns on. Lights, TV, radio, everything. I turn everything off really quick because I have no idea what's going on. And nobody's there. No little voice, or big voice. I leave it alone in my head because it was really creepy. But I can't get it out of my head, so when I run into Izzy, I ask her if she's seen Cameo. I'd been worried about her since that whole thing, and she needs to get her brain in order in case the ghosts find her. But Izzy says she hasn't seen her in over a day. Nobody had. I went to EVERYONE. Even Michael, just now, when he came out of your room." Now he looks a bit uncomfortable. Damn. "He hasn't even seen her, and he was just in her room."
"I brought her to her room last night." Vlad says reflectively. "She looked fine. I stood here last night, actually. That's why I was already here, Delaina. But I didn't see Mikey come in. I think both of us were already sleeping."
"You stood here? And you tell em I'm going too fast?" I'm indignant at this news. He can't judge me!
"At least she knew I was here. She wanted me to stay, actually." He looks triumphant at his verbal sparring victory. Damn you, Vlad. Damn you.
"Well, anyway, I checked everywhere. She doesn't know the code to the door, so she didn't leave. And the safehouse is small, so someone would have seen her. She's... vanished." Alex finishes.
"But wait... Didn't you call her out? She left a note on my pillow." I take the Post-It out of my pajamas pocket and hand it to him.
Alex stares at it. "I was going to. But I had that dream, got freaked out, and abandoned the idea."
"If she's not sleeping, and she's not with you, or us...what the fuck happened to Cameo?" Vlad says worriedly.
"No idea." I say. "We've got to let everybody know that she's gone."
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