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"I'm not your mother, Caitlin," the voice whispered. "I just saw you as I was on my way to the other side. You looked so helpless that I felt I had to stop."
"Can you help me?"
"Only you can help yourself. Allies are enemies and enemies are friends. The only one you can trust is yourself."
The figure started moving again, but this time it was floating away from me. I reached out my hand, frightened of being abandoned.
"Don't leave me! I'm scared!"
The voice was faint in my head, barely audible. "Don't be scared, Caitlin. Either you'll live or you'll die. Everyone faces that choice in the end."
My eyes snapped open as I surfaced from hypnosis in a blinding rush. I was breathing heavily and my shirt was soaked in sweat. The women let go of each other's hands when they saw I was awake, stepping back and allowing my father to take center stage.
"What did you see?" His expression grew menacing. "And don't even think about lying. If I find out you've lied, you'll be wishing you were dead."
I licked my dry lips as terror gripped me. My experience this time had been nothing like my previous hypnosis. I had gotten no answers, no insights. Just a young girl with a cryptic message.
I scrambled to come up with something believable. There was no way my father would accept the truth. He would be convinced that I was lying and holding back on what I had seen. The thought of something happening to Sarah was intolerable. Despite my father's threats, how could he ever find out that I was lying?
My father raised an eyebrow as my silence continued. I hurriedly started speaking, afraid that I would goad him into provocation.
"I saw vardogers coming after me, but they weren't a united front. Some are pretending to be part of your movement to overtake all the humans, but they're really against you. They're going to try and overthrow you." I wanted to plant seeds of doubt in my father's head, for him to believe that there were traitors amongst his group.
My father's lips tightened but he didn't speak, waiting for me to continue. I took a deep breath, hoping that I sounded convincing. I needed to say something that my father would be happy to hear.
"Your...kind are getting stronger every day. Finding the palladium was the key to winning the war against seers." The words tasted bitter as I said them, but I needed to make this believable. But I couldn't stop the next words from tumbling out of my mouth. "But you're going to lose."
His nostrils flared and his eyes glittered dangerously. "What else?"
I shook my head. "That's it. That's all I saw."
My father turned to Lenore. "Put her under again."
"I can't. Her pulse became dangerously slow when she was under hypnosis. If I put her under again today, there's a good chance her heart will stop beating. It's too much stress on her body."
"We'll take the chance!"
Lenore took a deep breath as if she were trying to calm herself. "She's useless to us dead. We can put her under hypnosis again tomorrow."
My father glared at Lenore but he didn't argue. He turned to the two teenage boys who had been watching silently. "Watch her. And make sure she isn't able to take the palladium necklace off."
He stalked out of the living room towards the kitchen and the three women followed him. I took a deep breath, relieved that he had believed my story. I heard their voices in the kitchen but I couldn't make out what they were saying. The two boys stared at me but didn't say a word.
I couldn't stop thinking about Simon. Was he really dead? I refused to believe it. I couldn't believe it because if I did, I wasn't sure I would have the will to fight. And I needed to fight, even if it meant my death.
I thought about what I had just experienced while I was under hypnosis. The girl had told me I wasn't alone but that I could only trust myself. That didn't exactly make me feel better. And I already knew the people that I thought were my friends were really my enemies. But who were the enemies that were now friends?
It was a while before my father came back into the living room. Despite my fear, I had an urgent need to use the bathroom. Shock and horror hadn't put a halt to my bodily functions.
"I need to use the bathroom."
My father smirked at me. "I don't care if you soil yourself."
"There's no need to go that far," Lenore said in a disapproving voice as she came into the living room. "I'll take her."
"You humans are so weak. You brought her to me on a silver platter, yet you still want to accommodate her requests for comfort." My father looked disgusted but Lenore seemed unaffected by his words.
"You're not in charge here. You don't make all the decisions."
