The Returning Read online

  “Who knows? I mean, you with your beautiful eyes and perfect face—it’s really a struggle for me.”

  Elise laughed again and shook her head. He’d never flirted with her quite so outright, and in the face of everything happening around them, she knew the timing was awful. But she didn’t care, because suddenly all she wanted to do was steal away with him and fall for him completely.

  They stood there, frozen in their private moment. She thought for a second he might kiss her, but before she could find out, the door behind them squeaked and he stepped away. Kennedy poked her head around the door, cleared her throat awkwardly, knowing she’d interrupted something, and then spoke. “Um, I think we’re almost ready.”

  Elise stole a final glance at Willis, then took off after her sister. They walked in silence back into the main room where the others were waiting. Elise strode to the corner to gather what she needed and felt Kennedy’s eyes on her. She looked over her shoulder and scowled at her sister’s raised, inquiring eyebrows.

  Kennedy chuckled and went back to what she’d been doing, leaving Elise alone with her thoughts.

  22

  The group passed through the hospital basement door without being detected. Sam had been on medical patrol duty often and knew that breaking into the basement was relatively easy to do. The problem would be in making it up to the third floor, their destination according to Willis’s latest dream. Timmons and Davis had stayed behind to man the fort and keep their eyes on the monitors, and Franklin had remained to keep an eye on them.

  It had become clear that Davis wasn’t interested in making runs, which was accepted by the group, as his skills were better suited elsewhere. He’d managed to hack into the data feed from the cameras that watched over all the major intersections throughout the city, and he now monitored them for changes in CityWatch patrols and identified open routes through the city’s busiest areas. Elise hadn’t met a mind quite like his before.

  “So we’re headed to the third floor?” Sam asked Willis.

  Willis nodded.

  “Makes sense,” Sam said. “The first couple of floors are used for administration and storage only.”

  “We travel together and quickly,” Kane said. “We have no idea what we might run into, so follow my lead if need be.”

  Kane was the most equipped to get them in and out of difficult situations, so they always turned to him for tactical maneuvers. Even if they weren’t sure he was completely convinced of the purpose of their actions, they needed him as much as anyone else on the team.

  They all nodded in agreement and started for the elevator. There were two in the hospital, but only one was functional. The other was a service elevator that had broken down a couple months back, and as far as Sam knew, it hadn’t been fixed yet. They would climb through the roof of the broken elevator and use the shaft’s ladder to scale up to the third floor. They rounded a corner of the basement, and Elise heard Sam breathe a sigh of relief when yellow construction tape still hung across the service elevator door.

  Sam reached the tape first and ripped it off. He and Kane worked together to quickly pry open the doors so they could move into the elevator box. The two were a good team. Without saying anything, they read each other’s body language and acted. Sam stepped into the elevator and offered his linked hands as a support to lift Kane up so that he could move the emergency hatch in the elevator’s ceiling. The thick, square panel revealed a large hole when removed, plenty big enough for them all to crawl through.

  Kane hoisted himself up through the open space and extended his hands down to assist Kennedy, Lucy, Willis, Sage, and Elise. Sam came through last on his own, as Kane was already leading people up the steel ladder that was built into the wall of the elevator shaft.

  Lucy was ahead of Elise, and Elise could see that the woman was trembling. “You okay?” she whispered.

  Lucy nodded. “Heights aren’t really my thing.” Nevertheless, she grabbed the first rung and started to climb without hesitation.

  Elise counted the doors as they climbed. One, two. The shaft was unventilated and humid, making it hard to breathe as they climbed. The distance between the floors was significant, so by the time they neared their desired level, they were a good distance from the ground. Elise came to a stop as she waited on those in front of her. She looked up to see Kane holding on with only one arm, working with Kennedy to open the third-floor elevator doors. Elise smiled; her little sister was much tougher than she looked.

  They managed to get the doors to open a couple of inches and Kennedy peered through to the floor beyond to make sure they were clear to enter. She nudged the doors open just a bit more, enough to squeeze her shoulders into the gap, and with Kane boosting her from below, disappeared. A moment later, the doors were pulled open enough for Kane to heave himself through, and they were all moving again.

  Lucy, Elise, Willis, and Sam all pulled themselves through the elevator doors and onto the third floor. The hallway that the elevator had led them to was empty. Most likely, this section of the hospital was for personnel only, and with a nonfunctioning elevator as its primary mode of transportation, Elise felt sure that they shouldn’t run into many people. The fluorescent lighting overhead flickered and gave the hall an eerie atmosphere.

  Kane moved ahead of the group to the end of the hall, where two wide double doors were closed. In each of the doors was a thin glass window. Kane peered through one to the next hallway before waving the others forward.

  The hospital was the largest venue they’d been to yet. As always, they couldn’t be sure what would happen once they arrived; they only knew that they were called to go and to follow their intuition once they arrived.

  When Willis had said a hospital was the next target, Kane had been the first to say it was too risky. There were easily a hundred people in a hospital at any given time, and there was no way they could sneak in and awaken that many people without anyone else catching wind of it.

  The hospital also had stronger security than the other locations they’d been to, which meant if they did get caught, getting away would be more difficult than anything they’d faced before. Everyone had heard Kane’s concerns, but as always, they had gone anyway.

  Elise reached Kane and looked through the glass panel herself. The hallway only held a couple of people; if they ventured farther in smaller groups, they would still have a chance to escape if things went awry.

  “We can still go back,” Kane said.

  “We’re already here,” Kennedy said. “No risk, no reward, right?”

  Kane looked at Elise and pleaded with his eyes.

  She reached out and touched his arm. “It’s okay.”

  He exhaled and shook his head. “Fine. Kennedy, Lucy, and Sage, you three stick together. I’ll stay with Elise. Willis and Sam, you bring up the back, keep us informed if anything goes wrong. We stay apart but never far enough that you guys can’t do your thing,” he said, making quotations with his fingers.

  “Really?” Sage said, clearly offended.

  Lucy placed her hand on Sage’s shoulder. “Let him be. We need to focus.”

  Elise glanced over her shoulder briefly at Willis.

  “Good luck,” he said and gave her hand a tiny squeeze.

  Sage turned away from Kane, and they all took a final deep breath before Kane and Elise moved out into the well-lit hallway first. They slowly walked toward the main commotion, making sure not to travel too quickly as a couple of nurses entered the hall chatting away, causing the other two groups to wait for their next opportunity to enter. Elise felt her heart seize as the nurses passed, but they didn’t pay Kane or Elise any mind.

  The two women disappeared into a supply room, and Elise glanced back to see Lucy, Sage, and Kennedy moving into the hall, Sam and Willis quickly following. Kane put his hand gently on Elise’s upper arm as they turned into the main hospital walkway and lost sight of the rest of the group. But she could feel them, the light inside of her calling to the light inside eac
h of them. She held to it tightly as Kane navigated her through the large clusters of people and over to the far right wall.

  Families were moving through, talking with doctors, children pulling at their mothers’ hems, fathers holding the little hands of wandering troublemakers. Young couples, old couples, pregnant mothers, injured workers. Some people were coughing and pale; others rubbed their throats; one man gripped his skull. Several people sat at the front of the lobby in the rows of collected chairs, waiting for their names to be called.

  Elise looked from face to face, hoping someone would pop out or something would give her any idea what they were supposed to do next. Surely they weren’t supposed to start moving through the crowd, awakening one person at a time? There were too many people here to do that. It would start a riot, and Elise wouldn’t be able to call forth all of their memories at the same time. The largest number of people she had tried to connect with at once was eleven, two days ago in a small market shop. Using Kennedy and Lucy as anchors had almost not been enough, and the experience had felt like it almost killed her.

  She tried not to think of that pain and fear now. She tried to remember who she was, what she was called to, and the power that lived inside her. But surely she wasn’t called to take on this whole crowd at once?

  Kane led her into a corner where they could see the entire lobby. Elise caught a glimpse of Kennedy and knew Lucy and Sage must be close behind. There was no sign of Sam or Willis, but she could feel them, so she didn’t worry.

  “What now?” Kane asked, keeping his eyes trained on the room, searching for threats.

  Elise didn’t know how to respond. She opened her mouth to say something about having patience but felt a small tug on the end of her jacket. Surprised, she turned to look down at a small boy. He was maybe five or six, with short blond hair and sparkling blue eyes as big as saucers. He was smiling up at her and waved his tiny little hand when she looked at him.

  She waved back and felt Kane giving the boy a suspicious glance. She rolled her eyes at Kane. “He’s just a child.”

  He huffed and turned his gaze back to the crowd. “Good to know we are risking our lives so you can hang out with kids.”

  Elise ignored him and turned back to the boy. “Hello,” she said.

  “Hi,” the boy replied.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Eli.”

  “That’s almost like my name—it’s Elise.”

  The boy scrunched his nose and giggled. “I already knew that.”

  Elise was taken aback and confused. “You already knew my name?” She could feel Kane watching with interest now.

  The boy nodded and motioned for Elise to come closer. She dropped to a squat and watched as he pulled a folded paper out of his back pocket. He unfolded it carefully, as if it were his most prized possession, and showed it to Elise. It was a child’s drawing, a golden field with tall yellow grass and a single man standing in the middle with features that Elise would know anywhere. Aaron.

  She looked at the boy. Their eyes connected, and she noticed the fire of light dancing behind them. The power housed in her soul began to stir. It buzzed under her skin and responded to the presence of the boy beside her. She reached out and stroked the drawing with admiration.

  “This is beautiful. Did you draw this?” Elise asked.

  He nodded and smiled so brightly that Elise felt her heart seize with hope. “He told me you were coming,” Eli said. “We’ve been waiting for you.”

  “We?”

  Eli looked up, and Elise followed his gaze. She saw children of all different ages, some with their parents, others standing alone, all of them watching her excitedly, their eyes wide, their little frames bouncing, as if they all knew what was coming next.

  Eli leaned closer to Elise so he could whisper in her ear. “We see the light too.”

  Emotion choked Elise’s words so she could only stare in wonder at the small child.

  “Don’t be scared,” he said and held out his hand.

  Without hesitation, Elise took it in her own, and her light started to pulse. Stronger than normal, faster too, like a raging storm, it swelled up into her chest and down through her frame. It rippled through her hand and meshed with the pure innocence radiating from Eli. He giggled as Elise watched the light work its way through his tiny body. It surrounded him like a spotlight that only the two of them could see and danced across his shoulders.

  Joy unlike anything she’d ever known consumed her. She couldn’t keep the smile off her face. It pulled her mouth wide and brought tears to her eyes. Suddenly Eli pulled his hand away and bounced over to a little girl who was standing against the wall a couple of yards away. Eli didn’t even touch her; he just walked past and her body too became filled with light. Like he’d flipped a switch in her and made her come alive. Then together, the two of them headed in different directions toward other children, and the ignition began.

  One by one, children all across the lobby became living lightbulbs, flickering to life as another one passed. And each time the power inside Elise surged. She tried to contain her excitement, but it was impossible, and she started laughing to herself. She knew people nearby were staring at her with strange expressions, but she didn’t care. How could she when the light was manifesting itself in the hearts of children right before her eyes?

  She caught Kennedy’s gaze from across the room and saw that all three Seer girls were smiling from ear to ear, swept up in what was happening before them. Elise looked at Kane, who was watching carefully but with his guard high. Even the perfection of children couldn’t penetrate his wall.

  Before Elise could take another breath, pain exploded in the back of her mind. Like hot burning coals, it seared her skull and brought tears to her eyes. It was so intense she let out a cry and caught the attention of most of the room. Light swept through her body and poured out into the room. She didn’t have to focus as she had before; the light grew strong on its own and gripped the people closest to her.

  Memories sprang up across her vision as wildfire consumed the air around her head and took her to her knees. She searched for the anchors of sanity that Kennedy and Lucy provided and clung to them, hoping to not get completely swept away in the power raging through the room.

  Cries of anguish filled the air. She could see people all across the lobby, not just the ones she was connected to, dropping like flies.

  Elise couldn’t control the onslaught of light that was working through people’s minds, calling forth their deeper truth. Erasing the fog that they’d lived under for so long. Why couldn’t she control it?

  She searched for the source of the chaos, moving her eyes around the room through the hazy cloud of memories covering her vision, and she saw them. Children, covered in light, strong and pure, moving through the crowded lobby and touching people. A little girl brushed her fingers across the arm of an older man, and his mind peeled apart. A boy laid his hand on the shoulder of his mother, and her memories were restored. At least a dozen children, acting as tiny vessels for the light, all connected to Elise.

  But the pain was the most unusual thing. As if she were experiencing the physical symptoms of everyone in the hospital at once. It rammed against her skull and filled her chest with fire. Her throat was being stabbed with knives, and her back, her legs, and her feet ached like nothing she had ever felt before. The horror of disease and death clouded her control, washing away her ability to stand.

  “Elise,” she heard someone yell through the madness. “Elise!”

  Willis, she thought, or maybe Kennedy. The voice felt familiar, but so much was happening inside her mind that maybe there wasn’t a voice at all. The linoleum floor was cold under her knees, and then it was hot, the temperature of her body switching rapidly. She heaved forward, catching herself with her palms. Sweat dripped from her forehead, and she struggled to breathe normally.

  “Elise!”

  She could feel Kennedy and Lucy reaching for her with their own light, try
ing to offer their strength, but it wasn’t enough. She was barely keeping it together. This must be what death feels like, she thought. Moments of utter pain until suddenly there was nothing. Elise would welcome the nothingness; death suddenly sounded like a relief.

  Fear not, daughter of the Father, light of the world.

  The voice eased her pain momentarily, but the second it was gone, the overwhelming ache returned.

  “I can’t,” she managed, a fresh wave of tears spilling from her eyes.

  Remember who you are. Remember who they are, for all carry the light. Help them see.

  “I can’t . . .” Elise felt like she might lose her breakfast all over the floor.

  Help them see.

  Elise closed her eyes and tried to block out the throbbing between them. She must be missing something.

  All carry the light.

  Elise searched the room, looking for her salvation. She couldn’t do this on her own. But then, she didn’t have to. If all carried the light, then all housed the same power she did. All were children of the Father, all were called beyond this world of physical form, all were greater than they knew. Even the doubters. Something pierced through her pain, a brilliant white light that shined differently than the rest. A child, she thought, but maybe it was something else.

  Suddenly she felt desperate for the new light. Her instincts told her to reach for it, and she did, managing to rotate her body enough to stretch out her hand and grasp the bottom of someone’s ankle.

  The room shifted again; the picture in Elise’s mind changed. She saw lights and color spewing from every corner of the room as if someone had set off fireworks. Every person in the lobby was now connected to the light as it grew rapidly, weaving its way through the building and crossing onto other floors.

  The pain continued but became bearable. The ache, the throbbing, the burning sensation still hovered close by but no longer threatened to rip her body into shreds. She breathed, sucking in chilled air and pushing out hot, steadying her panicked heart, and accepting the pain.