Chapter Six: "visions, memories, disappearances"

Tori's response has my mind reeling, and the uneasiness from the crazy memory I just had gets buried under the confusion. I expected her to name a person, but this?

Can the world, just once, make some sense?

My expression turns doubtful. "Your story doesn't add up," I say. My mind is moving a mile a minute, and I'm barely able to keep up. "You said that you were told to return my note to me."

"I was," Tori insists. Her eyes are hardened into a glare as though she can't believe I have the gall to doubt her. It annoys me.

"By who?"

A pause of silence.

"Spencer."

My teeth grind together. It makes no sense. None of it does. Will it ever?

"You're going to have to elaborate on your responses more, Tori."

Her eyes close briefly, and when she opens them she looks desperate. "I'm going to tell you everything, Elliot. That's why I'm here. It's just...I'm afraid you won't believe me."

The moon has shifted in the sky, the slice of moonlight slanting through the window at a different angle. It's higher, hitting Tori and enveloping her features with a shadow in the creepiest way possible.

To trust or not to trust.

"Try me," I say. At this point, I just want this to be over. She's dragging things out for no reason and I'm exhausted.

She gulps. "Weird things have been happening to me lately. Things I can't explain." She leans forward on the table, folding her arms in front of her.

"What do you mean?" I press.

"Well, I..." Her voice wobbles, and she stops to clear her throat. "I've been having these...visions."

Okay.

I guess the world doesn't want to make sense.

The look on my face must show exactly what I'm thinking, because Tori quickly raises her hands. "Before you go calling me crazy, just hear me out."

"Go on."

She takes a deep breath and then finally, finally starts to explain herself.

"It happened last night. I was in bed, and my eyes were closed but I wasn't sleeping." Her bottom lip starts to tremble. "And then I saw..."

Her voice escapes her and she curls her fingers into fists on the table. Clouds outside have shrouded the moon from sight once again, leaving the room in almost complete darkness save for the eerie glow of Tori's eyes.

My skin itches at the heavy silence. I want to frown, to urge her to stop wasting time and just say what she needs to, but my conscience stops me. Some sort of serious, internal battle is going on in this girl's head. Something I probably don't understand.

At least, that's what I tell myself to avoid snapping at her and causing her to shut down, deciding not to talk to me at all.

She clears her throat lowly. "I saw him, crouching beneath the cover of our apple tree in the back. He was looking over is shoulder like he was in some sort of danger."

I try to envision it. Spencer, for some reason digging in the darkness behind an old friend's house, looking frightened. It's surprisingly clear in my mind, despite how unrealistic Tori's claim about a vision is.

She takes a breath, spewing out her story with more confidence. "I remember opening my eyes, to get rid of the sight, but the vision didn't go away. I was looking at a clear picture of Spencer Hernández burying something in my backyard."

Her eyes trap mine. "When my vision cleared, I went into the backyard and dug up the note. And it was almost like I could hear his voice, telling me to deliver his message." She inhales shakily. "So I did."

I can tell she's finished by the way she eyes me expectantly, as if she's waiting for me to laugh in her face and call her insane. The rational side of me tells me I should. But the desperate side of me, the one who only wants his best friend back, tells me to reconsider.

"I want to believe you, Tori," I say, in the lightest tone I can manage. My tone is laced with desperation and helplessness. "But that's very far fetched."

She grits her teeth, anger snapping over her features like lightning. The abrupt change in facial expression shocks me. "You don't think I know that, Elliot?" Her fingers rise from the table and bury themselves in her hair, messing up her updo. When she looks at me again, with her heavy scowl and desperate eyes, I'm reminded of a mad woman. "I know it doesn't make sense. I'm just as confused as you are."

I blow out a long bout of air, slumping back into my seat and running a hand down my face. Exhaustion is heavy on my shoulders and I doubt I'll be able to bare its weight much longer.

I can't do this, not now. Not when my wounds have just been reopened and grief follows me everywhere I go, like a demented stalker intent of ruining the plans I have for the rest of my life. I want Spencer back, I want him to be alright, but trying to figure it all out now is giving me a headache. It pulses in my temples as I lock eyes with Tori once more.

"You go to Ridgewood, right?"

She flinches at my question, as though I'd slapped her. "Yes," she snaps. "I'm finishing up my fourth and last year there, just like you."

I don't have the energy to feel guilty for not noticing her. "Find me on Monday, okay?" I'm up and moving towards the back door before I hear her answer.

Visions, memories, disappearances, lost messages. The thoughts are all clumped in my mind, churning against each other like waves and making my head spin.

It doesn't make sense.

The thought brings with it a wave of hopeless sadness.

As I step into the back lot and make my way to mom's car, the moon once again guiding my path, I come to the only logical conclusion there is:

Tori lied to me.

The thought should make me annoyed, angry even, but with the heaviness of the night and the cloud of fatigue hanging over my body, I want nothing more than my bed. A quick look at my phone tells me it's exactly two in the morning. I need to rest my brain and body for now. Spencer would understand.

I slide into mom's car. For a few seconds, I allow my head to rest on the top of the steering wheel and my eyes to flutter shut, just taking the time to relax my nerves. Tori's reappearance in my life tonight is far from the nostalgic reunion one would expect. But maybe, just maybe, she'll lead me closer to finding Spencer.

I lift my head, ready to put the key in the ignition, but a searing pain splits my skull and I gasp. My back hits the seat and my hands fly up to the back of my head. The keys clank against each other as they clamber to the bottom of the car, a detail I'm only acutely aware of because of my current state.

It's excruciating, making my body tremble and teeth grind against one another. My eyes are screwed shut so tightly that the skin around them hurts, but that's nothing compared to the agony in my skull.

Sharp rods of pain shoot through my head, starting near my forehead and spreading to the crown of my head in waves. My heart is like thunder in my ears, and it takes me a moment to realize my throat is raw from the screaming I'm doing.

Forever goes by twice, and yet the pain doesn't ease up. Tears that I've only shed for Spencer suddenly spring in my eyes, marking twisted paths down my face.

Somewhere, at the edge of my mind, I register a voice. It's dark, sending a tendril of fear down my spine that settles somewhere in my stomach. The dread that follows is so intense, so strong.

"Consider this your first warning, Elliot."

And then, all at once, it stops. No more pain, no more dread, no more suffering. My breathing comes in short bursts of air as I try to recuperate. My fists grip the wheel and I stare blankly into the night in front of me.

What was that?

I look down at my keys and cell phone that landed on the floor. The phone's display is on, and small white numbers on the screen taunt me.

2:01 am.

It only lasted one minute.

I take a shaking hand and start the car, worrying somewhere in the back of my mind that I'd have another episode while driving. But it's not like I can stay here. No, I need the privacy of my own home and the comfort of my own bed to pull whatever's left of my patience and sanity together.

As I turn my head to see the road as I back out of the parking space, I catch sight of something neon blue in the backseat.

I immediately stop what I'm doing and lunge for it, ignoring the way my stomach twists. My hands shake so much that I can hardly pull it open. Something falls from the folds of the note while I pull it apart, but I ignore it as my eyes fly over the words. The handwriting doesn't belong to Spencer, but that doesn't stop me from reading with eagerness. There are only eight words:

Next time, I'll take something even more valuable.

My eyes shift to the my right, where that object from the note landed.

There, sitting on the passenger's seat of my mom's car, is a clump of Cheeto's fur.

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