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“Thank you. I appreciate it.” I bit my lip as I considered my next words. “We don’t really have a plan right now, besides waiting for my father to show up. I’m hoping that I’ll have some dreams to guide me, but what I really need are other seers that can put me under hypnosis.”
Simon shook his head. “That’s too dangerous. It’s dangerous enough to put you under, but it’s even more dangerous because even if we were able to get in contact with other seers, we don’t know if we can trust them.”
I opened my mouth to object when the doorbell rang. We all stared at each other as the sound reverberated throughout the apartment. Sarah covered her mouth with her hand, as if she was afraid she was going to make a sound to tip off the person, or thing, on the other side of the door.
The doorbell rang again, paired with a knock that was loud and insistent, demanding to be answered.
Chapter Three
The second knock was hard enough to shake the doorframe, but the voice that called out along with it made me relax fractionally, although I was still on guard.
“Hello? Why aren’t you answering the door? I know you’re inside, I heard you talking in there.” Marcus’ voice sounded uncharacteristically irritated. “Is this some sort of joke? It’s freezing out here!”
Sarah moved towards the door but I stopped her.
“Wait!” I hissed quietly. “We don’t know if it’s actually Marcus.”
“It sounds like him,” Grant said although he looked hesitant.
“Do I sound like your cousin?” Simon asked. Grant flinched at the reminder, but he seemed to get the message.
“So what do we do?” Sarah looked panicked. “We can’t just not answer the door. He knows we’re in here.”
Simon took charge. “We’re going to answer the door. But we can’t tell Marcus anything. We just need to get him out of here as soon as possible. Even I can’t tell whether someone’s been overtaken by their vardoger or not. Just be on guard for anything to happen.”
Simon indicated for Sarah to go ahead and open the door, and she walked over and unlocked it tentatively, like she was afraid it was rigged with an explosive. She slowly opened the door and Marcus, looking perfectly normal besides the disgruntled look on his face, walked in. He glanced at all of us before speaking.
“Why do you guys look so weird? And why did it take you so long to answer the door?”
“Sorry about that,” Sarah said with a forced smile. “We didn’t hear the doorbell at first. There must be something wrong with it.”
Marcus looked at her askance before his gaze settled on Grant. “I just got back from New Jersey and wanted to check in before I headed over to Jenny’s dorm. I figured you would be up here.”
Grant tried to smile naturally as he spoke. “You figured right.”
“We were just about to go out,” I blurted out, trying to move things along. “Simon and I are going to the library, and Grant and Sarah are going shopping.”
Marcus shrugged. “Okay, I already have plans with Jenny anyways.” No one spoke and Marcus furrowed his brows. “Well, I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. See you later.”
The silence was awkward as Marcus looked at all of us again before leaving, clearly befuddled by the unexplainable tension in the room.
“Oh, God,” Sarah groaned after he had left. “I feel like such a jerk. It was so obvious that we were trying to get rid of him. He seemed perfectly normal, except for his confusion, which doesn’t surprise me. I’d be confused too if my best friends were trying to get rid of me.”
“It’s for his own good,” Simon said. “If he hasn’t been overtaken, he’s better off keeping his distance from us. We’re the main target, and being close to us is dangerous.”
Grant crossed his arms against his chest, looking combative. “So what are we supposed to do? Hole up in the apartment until Caitlin’s father comes knocking on the door?”
I answered before Simon could, not wanting another argument to start. “Marie is trying to find seers we can trust so that I can be put under hypnosis. My father is convinced that I hold the answers to how vardogers can become immortal. Maybe I also unknowingly hold the answers on how to destroy my father.”
“And until then?” Grant looked skeptical as he raised an eyebrow.
“Until then we try to stay alive.” Simon’s voice was flat, his face expressionless. Grant opened his mouth, looking ready to argue, but I put a hand up to stop him from speaking.
“Let’s just take this one step at a time,” I said, trying to sound reasonable. “We’ve told you everything we know. My father will come for me and I’ll deal with him. Until then, we stay here.”
“What about classes?” Sarah looked concerned, and I wondered if she understood the depth of danger we were facing. Missing classes was the last thing on my mind.
“I’m sorry, but it’s just not safe. No classes and no going anywhere alone. We’re the safest in this apartment.”
