“Everything okay?” my mom asked, glancing over her shoulder at me.
“Uh, fine,” I replied, trying to calm my breathing. “I just…” I had to think quickly. And I didn’t want to lie in a church parking lot. “It was hard to see Alice and Steve.”
My mom made a clicking noise with her tongue. “I know. It’s just… terrible.”
Dad backed the van out of the parking spot and got in line with the other cars waiting to make their way onto the street that ran past the church. “It really is just awful.”
Mom started recounting whatever she and Alice had talked about, and my dad, who must not have heard for some reason, maybe he had been talking to Steve, made the little sounds he was obligated to make in order for my mom to know that he was listening. Meanwhile, my phone burned a hole through my hand. I needed to get home so I could call Lucy. I had to see what she thought about what Emma had to say about the video, though I already knew the first three letters would be, “OMG.”
As soon as my dad pulled the van to a stop in the garage, I was out the door. “I’m going upstairs to change!” I shouted over my shoulder, praying none of us had remembered to lock the door between the garage and the foyer. It opened easily as I hit it full force, and I left it ajar as I flew up the stairs, thinking my parents would be right behind me.
“Well, lunch is ready!” my mom shouted after me. “It’s been in the crockpot all morning!”
“Okay!” I shouted back at her, but I thought I could get away with taking ten minutes or so to change and call Lucy, probably at the same time. I hit my bedroom door at about the same magnitude as I’d hit the door to the house, and was fumbling through my recent calls, ready to press Lucy’s name when I looked up and screamed, my arms flailing, and my phone sailing out of my hand.
Elliott caught it before it hit the wall where it likely would’ve shattered into a million pieces, and I did my best to stifle the screech that was still coming out of my mouth before my parents knew what was happening.
“Are you okay, Cassidy?” my dad shouted up the stairs.
“Uh, yeah, I’m fine,” I stammered. “I just… tripped. I’m okay, though.”
“Well, be careful, honey,” my mom yelled. “The last thing we need is a broken limb.”
“I will be!” I closed the door behind me and turned to the man standing in the middle of my bedroom. “What the heck?” I whispered. “You scared the crap out of me.”
He was standing between my bed and desk now, his arms folded, my phone still in his clutches. “Sorry about that, but I had to do something to get your attention. Clearly, our recent discussions have had little effect on your judgment—or lack thereof.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I lied, crossing my own arms. “I was just… going to call Lucy to see if she knows what’s on the lunch menu tomorrow.”
“Oh, really?” he asked, not wavering. He cocked his head to the side. “So, it doesn’t have anything at all to do with the video you had Emma investigating? Or the fact that you re-told them all of the information I had Hannah pluck out of their brains last time she was here?”
My mouth dropped open in shock. “How do you know that?” I asked, once I could speak again. “Have you been spying on me?”
“I have my sources,” he replied, shaking his head at me, like my recent life choices were disgusting to him. “I told you… we can’t play this game, Cassidy. You cannot be telling your friends what you know. Not only are you going to end up getting me in trouble, they’re gonna be more at risk, too, and you don’t want that, do you?”
He had my attention now. “What kind of risk?” I asked, unfolding my arms and putting my hands on my hips. “What are you talking about?” Thoughts of what had apparently happened to Jack filled my mind again. Is that what he was talking about? Could Lucy or Emma be in danger?
Elliott let out a sigh and dropped down so that he was sitting on the edge of my bed. “Look, lil girl, I trusted you, and you went behind my back and started talking again. You’ve left me little choice….”
I knew what he was getting at and was ready to flee the room, though I didn’t know what good it would do me. He could catch me in half a second if he wanted to. “No,” I said quietly. “I’m sorry. I’ll… fix it.”
“Fix it? How?”
“I’ll tell them I was just kidding. I’ll tell them that I made the video, that I made the whole thing up.” I was desperately searching for ways I could prevent him from wiping my memory.
“Cassidy,” he said quietly, “I don’t think you grasp the importance of keeping this information to those who are allowed to know about it. I’m sure you’ve noticed how quickly posts get taken down when they give regular old people a look into what we’re all about, haven’t you?” I nodded. “Christian patrols that stuff closely for a reason. Our official title starts with Clandestine—do you know what that means?” I nodded again. “Good. Then, stop trying to make it all public information.”
“I’m not,” I countered, sinking onto the bed about three feet away from him. “I’m just trying to understand what is happening and cope with it. I don’t exactly have a lot of people I can talk to about anything at all. Lucy and Emma are the only ones I can trust—besides you—and it’s been killing me to keep this information from them.” I could see his countenance shift for a moment when I said I could trust him, and part of that was a play for sympathy on my part; I thought, perhaps if he remembered how important I am to him and vice versa he wouldn’t be so keen to take all of my thoughts away from me. But I didn’t expect it to work.
“Cassidy… there are certain things we are not allowed to screw around with.”
“I understand. I really do. It’s just… why can’t they know? Is it because no one in their family is a part of it?”
“No,” he replied with a shrug. “But… it isn’t time yet.”
“So, just like me, they will get to find out eventually, right?”
“Yeah, but that’s years off.”
“Lucy will be sixteen in the spring, just a few months from now. That’s only a year early, really.”
“Cassidy, quit trying to talk me into something I’m not allowed to change! I came here with the intention of making all of this stop, not to give you more rope to hang yourself with!”