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I place my bags beside me to stop anyone from sitting next to me. While everyone is distracted, I tug my hood down and put the baseball cap on before pulling the hood up over it. Leaning back, I study the woman four seats ahead and across from me and try to figure out the best way to approach her. As much as I want to blurt out the truth, it’s not really an option. If she thinks I’m crazy, she won’t listen to me, or worse, I scare her. My biggest fear is that my actions are what cause the vision. For example, if I do nothing, will she climb off the bus a stop before mine? What if it’s me freaking her out that makes her stay put, figuring she’s safer on board than outside with me? What if my words push her into the very situation I’m trying to avoid? I try to relax, knowing I’m going to be here for a while, so nothing is going to happen yet.
I keep my eyes on her for most of the journey, except for when they drift to the front of the bus and the driver watching her in the rearview mirror. As my stop gets closer, my anxiety increases as the bus slowly gets emptier. When the person sitting behind the woman gets off, I take a chance and change seats. I’ll only get one shot at this, and I pray to God that she heeds my warning before I hear about her on the news.
I blow out a breath, lean forward, and start whispering to her.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Slade
“How much longer is this going to take?” I cross my arms impatiently as Ev types God knows what into his computer.
“As long as it fucking takes, Slade. A lot of this stuff has been buried.”
“You think it’s a government cover-up?” Zig questions. It’s not hard to make that leap. They know about Salem, after all. If there is even a slim chance of Astrid having visions, then it stands to reason they know about her too.
I look from Zig to Oz and see them staring at the screen, trying to follow along with Ev, but the man works at speeds that are beyond us.
“I can’t see anyone else having the means or funds,” Oz agrees. “Erasing something like that, something that should have made national news, is nearly impossible. I’m looking for other options, but right now, all I see is the government.”
“Then you’re not looking in the right places.” Ev turns to look at the three of us.
“It would be one hell of a bargaining chip to hang over her head,” Zig adds.
Ev crosses his arms and shakes his head. “You guys have already decided Astrid’s guilty, so what’s the rush? Could it be that you’re not sure that she’s guilty of the assumptions you all jumped to after all?”
None of us say anything to that. I, of all people, don’t want any of this to be true. That’s why we’re standing here while Ev keeps digging. I can’t be around Astrid right now, not until I know for sure. Like Greg said, I’ll end up saying or doing something I’ll regret. Something more than I already have. I can’t deny, though, that the feeling of betrayal made me react without thinking.
Could Astrid—my Astrid—really have done this?
“Alright, I’ll bite,” Oz drawls. “Who else could have covered Astrid’s involvement up? And if they were skilled enough to hide parts of the story, why not hide it completely?
“Her parents are loaded. Who the fuck do you think covered it up?” Ev sighs, rubbing his eyes. “And I'm guessing they didn't cover it all up because they didn't have to. They just needed to hide enough to bury the truth. Though some people won’t see the truth even when it’s right in front of them, which I don’t get.
“Take you, Zig. You’ve always had a feeling when something wasn’t right, right? A knowing, or a sixth sense, if you like. And you listen to it every time because it’s rarely wrong. Nobody can see it. Nobody can feel it except you. And yet we don’t question it because we believe you. You’ve earned our loyalty again and again.
“Astrid doesn’t have that. Nobody stood in her corner. Because they couldn’t see what she saw until it was too late to stop it. After that, it didn’t matter what she said or did. Everyone had already made up their mind about her, just like now. She was the crazy girl who should have been locked up, but her rich parents didn’t want to deal with the stigma of having a mentally disturbed child. Instead, they normalized her issues.” He says normalized with air quotes.
“What the fuck does that even mean?”
“It means, according to some of the files I found, instead of letting the world think Astrid was a crazy girl who claimed to see the future, her parents made her out to be just another spoiled rich kid doing what other spoiled rich kids do best–act out. What that actually did was make things a thousand times worse for her. Can you imagine what it must be like to see what she sees? The awful, horrible things, and yet nobody believes you when you say something. These same naysayers are the ones who vilify her when her visions come to life. Imagine being mocked and jeered on top of having to deal with what she sees, and even her own family pretends she’s nothing but a joke. All she needed was for one person to stand up for her.” He’s practically growling now, and it’s making my hackles rise.
“If you’ve got something to say, Evander, just spit it out. I’m not a mind reader,” I snap.
“Wouldn’t matter if you were. It’s all just a bunch of bullshit, right? Salem can heal people with her touch, but Astrid—”
“I never said I didn’t believe she was gifted. I’m not sure either way yet, because she hasn’t had a vision the whole time she’s been here.”
“Imagine that,” Zig mutters under his breath. “Look, I get what you’re trying to say, Ev. And a part of me thinks it’s cool that you want to have Astrid’s back like that, but I’m not sure she deserves it. Salem earned our trust by saving our lives. Astrid has yet to prove anything.”
“And that’s how you measure someone’s worth, huh?” Ev shakes his head, turns back to his screens, and resumes typing as he talks.
“Salem can prove her gift. We’ve seen it work with our own two eyes,” Oz points out.
“Yet I believed her before I saw the video. Remember, I wasn’t there the day she revealed it to all the guys. I saw the footage and never questioned its validity. I deal in facts and truths, but I never had a doubt when it came to Salem’s gift. I get that same feeling with Astrid.”
The room is quiet at that. I stand back and try to think through everything Ev is saying. What does he see that I’m missing?
As if he can hear my thoughts, he replies. “It’s not that I see more, it’s that you’re wearing blinders. You think you’re all believers now because of Salem, but you all just openly admitted it was only because she could prove she was gifted. Astrid can’t prove her gift is real until her vision comes true. Part of me wants to lose my shit over that because you seem to all be forgetting that if her vision does come true, Salem dies.”
