Realizing we were back on her dream now, I agreed. “It is weird, but like you said, it’s just a dream. Maybe you just happened to see all of those people on TV yesterday or something.”
“I don’t think so,” Lucy said quickly, like she’d already gone through the possibilities. “And I definitely haven’t watched any scary movies or videos.”
“We watched Twilight last time I was at your house,” I reminded her.
“Uh, the only part about that movie that’s scary is K-Stew’s acting.”
I tried not to laugh. “But it does involve vampires.”
“True.”
“People have been trying to figure out dreams forever, Lucy. I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about. Just try to forget about it, okay?”
“Okay….”
I glanced at the clock by my bed and saw that it was almost 10:00. “It’s just about my bedtime,” I reminded her. “We don’t wanna be tired the first day back at school. I’ll see you in the morning, okay?”
“All right. Have a good night.” She sounded less than enthusiastic, and I was beginning to have anxiety pangs wondering what was happening with my friends. We said goodbye, and I set my phone down, crossing my arms and going back over what Lucy had told me about her dream.
Some of it made perfect sense to me. Lucy had known about the Eidolon Festival, though she hadn’t gone there. We had speculated what it must’ve been like a lot of times, though. She knew that Jack, Drew, and Cadence had all been there. The last time we’d spoken about it, we were all three convinced that Cadence was a vampire, though we suspected she was in a good coven, one that destroyed bad vampires, and there was a possibility that Lucy had concluded that Drew and Jack had somehow changed into bad vampires, which would leave my sister to destroy them. Honestly, as crazy as it sounded, I still thought much of that was possible, though I no longer thought my sister was a vampire. Elliott had told me that wasn’t the case, and I believed him.
The collection of famous people was odd, but I thought I knew where some of them had come from. I grabbed my laptop and Googled a few to see if I could come up with anything. It only took me a moment to sort out the loose ends. I remembered thinking that Hannah looked like Connie Britton, whom I had watched on Nashville, but she also played the character on Friday Night Lights that Lucy had mentioned. This told me she also thought Hannah looked like Connie Britton, so when Lucy saw the actress in her dream, she was associating her with Hannah.
The Matt Bomer reference was obvious, too. I had once compared Aaron to the actor from White Collar, not because they look the same, but because, at the time, I had thought that Aaron might be one of those really hot guys all the ladies fall for who just happen to be gay… like Matt Bomer.
I had to look up the name of the guy who played the dad on Friends, but as soon as I saw it, I knew where Lucy was coming from. She’d never met Elliott, so her brain must’ve randomly picked someone with the same name—Elliott Gould—though I wondered why Lucy happened to know that particular actor’s name.
Then there was the Jamie Dornan reference. That one had me a little stumped. Was she associating that actor with Dr. Jamie Joplin—or Christian? Jamie Dornan played Christian Gray, after all. I supposed it didn’t really matter what Lucy was thinking. Her subconscious was pulling information from before she’d been brainwashed, trying to make sense of it, trying to remember, and this is the jumbled-up mess it had come up with it.
I wondered why Ashley Greene wasn’t there. It had been the similarities between Eliza and the actress from Twilight that had helped me to make the connection between vampires and what was going on with my sister to begin with. Maybe Lucy’s brain couldn’t make that connection again just yet because of whatever Hannah had done to her. Maybe that would be too much.
It was getting late, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to go to sleep after all that. I was glad I hadn’t had any weird dreams myself, yet, and I wanted to avoid it if possible. I picked up my phone and called Elliott, thinking he might be busy hunting vampires, although I wasn’t really sure what time the bloodsuckers usually came out.
“Hold on,” he said quietly as soon as he answered, though not in a rude way, and then I heard the squeal of metal on the floor, like he was pushing a chair out, followed by footsteps, the sound of a door opening and closing, and then the rush of air against the phone. I assumed he’d stepped outside. “What’s up, lil girl?”
“Sorry to bother you. It sounds like you were busy.” I felt bad for whatever I’d interrupted.
“Nah, just a boring meeting I didn’t really want to attend anyway. But I’ll have to go back in a second, so I hope you can make it quick.”
“Sure. I just….” Could I make it quick? I wasn’t even sure what I wanted to say. “Lucy had a really weird dream. And Emma’s acting paranoid. I’m worried about them.”
He was quiet for longer than I had anticipated. “Well, uh, I’ll see what I can do about that.”
Not knowing what he meant by that, I said, “Okay….” Was it possible someone else was walking around outside near him, and he was being cryptic? “Should I be worried?”
“No.” That answer came very fast. “And you shouldn’t tell them anything either.”
“Okay,” I said again. “But… Emma’s okay, isn’t she? I mean… Jack was acting like that before… before….”
“Emma O’Sullivan is just fine, Cassidy. She’s definitely not like Jack.”
I knew that his answer implied so much more than what I could get into right now. “All right. I’m sorry for bothering you. You said you’ll take care of it, though?”
“You don’t ever need to apologize for calling me, Cass. Yes, I will take care of it. Now, it’s getting late. You should get some sleep.”
Regardless of the fact that I had no idea what he intended to do, I did feel much better, and I didn’t think it was because he’d used his voodoo over the phone. “All right,” I repeated. “Be careful.”
“Don’t worry about me, lil girl. Ain’t much that can kill this old man.”
Having no idea what that meant and desperately wanting to ask, I remembered that he was in a hurry and literally bit my bottom lip.
“See ya soon, lil girl.”
“Bye,” I managed and hung up. I let out a deep breath, still feeling content to let him figure out what was going on with my friends and trusting him to fix it, but I was uneasy, as I had been for as long as I could remember. Since Thanksgiving, anyway.