~Chapter 28~

   Crap! It must not have worked! I haven't heard anything from Ai saying she'll come help so my mind message must not have reached her! RRRGG! What am I going to do!?

   "Liliana!" I looked up to see Adriana walking toward me. I'd still been sitting down in the trees behind the school, gripping my head in my hands, trying, desperately, to think of something I could do.

   I stood up and tried to smile at her. "Hey Adri." She scowled at me. "Liliana, I know you're only used to keeping stuff from me, but you've got to understand, the Adriana you're talking to now has lived three lifetimes and remembers them all. You can't keep secrets from me anymore." She looked strong, and stubborn, as always, but now I could see the woman that had once been Queen.

   So I took a deep breath. "Caleb is going to try to kill you." Adriana made a face that was similar to a child's face the first time they taste broccoli.

   "What?"

   She took a step back. "Look, I don't know what Kris did, but he somehow made Caleb so mad he wants to kill you, and he's going to try to today."

   "No." Adriana shook her head and took a step back.

   "Wait, Adri, let me-"

   "No! Caleb wouldn't do that!" She stumbled back another couple steps.

   "Adri, I saw it! But-"

   "No! No!!" And she turned tail and fled.

   "No! Adri!" But she was gone.

~Chapter 27~

   Die...

   Someone is going to die...

   DIE!

   The screaming voice was panicked, scared, desperate. It struck me so hard I fell off the bed, landing on the ground with a loud thud!

   "Ow..." I heard a shifting in the bed and looked up to see the beautiful light-haired girl in the white lacy nightgown looking down at me, confused from sleep.

   "What are you doing down there?" She murmured.

   I rubbed my head and grumbled, "I fell off the bed."

   She plopped her head down on the pillow and rubbed the place I was laying. "Well come back, I'm cold." I let out a small laugh and got back in the bed under the covers. She then scooted into my arms and I placed a soft kiss on her lips. "I love you Nolan," she whispered. I kissed her again.

   "I love you too Ai." Ai soon fell fast asleep, but I was left laying awake, unable to shut my eyes again. I knew that dream was important. I need to tell Ai what it said. But then I looked down at her. She was so calm, so relaxed, so at peace. She hadn't been like this in so long. She deserves one complete night of peaceful sleep. I'll tell her in the morning.

~Chapter 26~

   I had paced back and forth in the backyard trees at our school for the past couple hours now, desperately trying to figure out what exactly led up to that scene and, oh yeah, HOW I CAN STOP IT!!! So far, I hadn't thought of ANYTHING.
   I have to contact Ai. I have to find a way to tell Ai!! But she's in Heaven! I'm not dead like the rest of them, I can't fly! What can I do? I can see the stupid future and have NO WAY to stop it! All I get are these useless mind powers!! Moving things with my mind, hearing people's thoughts, really? What good is it going to do me to get into someone's head!?
   ...
   Someone's head.
   I can get into people's heads. Can I only then hear their thoughts? Maybe I can do more...
   I finally stopped pacing, sat down in meditating position, and focused.
   Ai...
   With my mind I called out to her, almost as though it were a telephone. Maybe, just maybe, I can reach her through a mental link and tell her about my vision.
   This was extremely strange. My consciousness left my body and traveled around, feeling the minds of many people, many many people. But I didn't want people. I wanted a ghost. An angel. A dead soul.
   Finally I locked onto a mind that felt different. As if it was only half there, faded by time. Maybe this is Ai. Maybe it's not. But it feels good, pure. It must be in Heaven. So I tried to send a thought instead of receive one.
   Adriana is going to die.

~Chapter 25~

   A cliff. A man-made one. I've seen this cliff before. It's here in town. It's made of beautiful blue tile and has water running over it. It's a man-made waterfall. Down at the bottom of the waterfall is a knee-deep pool of water, surrounded by a ledge which people like to sit on like a bench.

   This fountain is at the center of the town park. It also happens to be where Adri and Caleb had their first official date.

   There they are, standing at the top of the waterfall, in the water, instead of on the sides like they're supposed to be, just as Adri described it to me the day after.

   So, if this is their first date...why am I seeing it? This is the past, not the future.

   ...Or is it?

   Sure enough, this doesn't look like a date. They aren't holding hands. In fact, they're yelling.

   What on Earth is going on?

   Wait.

   What is THAT!?

   Caleb has a sword!! Who gave him a sword!? And why's he pointing it at Adri!? Caleb don't!!

   Adri, of course, ducked and ran out of the way when Caleb lunged at her. She then screamed at him with tears in her eyes, no doubt trying to reason with him.

   He hesitated.

   And up came the man who ruined everything. Kris, right? That's his name? In Caleb's hesitation, he ran up and shoved Adriana off the cliff, sending her falling and screaming.

   "CALEB!!"

   I sprung straight up in my sleeping bag, screaming bloody murder.

   "Liliana! What's wrong!?" Adriana had been jolted awake by my scream. I looked to my left to see Adri sitting up, hair matted from sleep, eyes tired and worried. I took a moment to catch my breath.

   "Nothing," I said. "Just a bad dream." Adri sighed and plopped back onto her pillow.

   "Jesus, you scared me."

   "Sorry," I murmured.

   "Well, we're supposed to get up in about 10 minutes anyway. No harm done. Let's get ready for school."

   "Um...Yeah, okay." Adriana got up and went to the bathroom to brush her teeth. I stayed seated in my sleeping bag, still shaken.

   That was no dream...

~Chapter 24~

   "This is bad, we need to act soon." I looked at Kris. There was that look in his eyes that told me he was thinking of something bad. "He's too smart, he's going to figure out I've been lying soon. He's already suspicious, I can tell. So I need to change things before he changes back."

   "What exactly are you going to do?" I sat down at the table with him. When he looked up at me, for a second it appeared as if he were looking at me the same way he'd been looking at Caleb. Why?

   "I don't really know. I'm thinking we kill Adriana, but then we'd need to act fast and kill her as an angel too. That way she's stuck oblivious to all of this once again for 14 years. And in that time, we can defeat them."

   "But if we kill Adriana...I don't know if Caleb is against her so much that he would be okay with that. I mean...he still loves her, he'd probably kill you for killing her. And you're not an angel, Kris. You wouldn't come back."

   Kris knew I was right, I could see it in his eyes. He contemplated for a minute. "Maybe we can get him to kill her."

   "What?"

   "Think about it Daisy! It could work! We twist his mind a little and make him mad and maybe we can get him to fight her! He's rash like that, he'd fall for it, but she's too loving, she wouldn't fight him, so she'd be killed!"

   That's terrible! Turning him against his love is one thing, but then getting him to kill her!? Kris, what happened to your heart!?

   "But what could you possibly say to get him to be that mad?"

   Again Kris thought. Then the spark in his eyes came to life that told me he knew what he was going to do. And  that I wasn't going to like it. He smiled at me. "Not what I say. What she says."

~Chapter 23~

   "Hey Lil?"
   "Sup?" Liliana asked through a bite of ice cream. We'd been watching movies and eating junk food all day and now we were on the Cherry Garcia ice cream.
   "What exactly can you do?"
   "What?" she asked with a confused expression.
   "You're protector powers. What are they?"
   "Oh..." She put down the ice cream and pressed pause on Indiana Jones. "You realize the whole point in me coming over here was to get your mind off all that stuff right!?"
   I winced at her sudden anger. "I'm sorry, it's just something that occurred to me...sorry..." I picked up the remote and pressed play again. We sat there in silence for a few seconds until Liliana pressed pause again.
   "I can read minds, see the future, and move things without touching them."
   "For how long?"
   "Few years."
   "Oh wow..."
   "Yep," she said as she pressed play again. We watched for nearly a minute when i pressed pause again.
   "Wait! So when you got that A on that pop quiz that EVERYBODY ELSE failed in chemistry-"
   "Hey, that's not fair! The answers happened to be in my vision that morning!"
   "Lil!!"
   "Sorryyyyyy!"
   Finally, for the first time in a week, I laughed a true, full-hearted laugh, and it felt good!
   Maybe this is possible...
   Maybe.

~Chapter 22~

   It didn't work...
   Still, every single night, Adri's soul called to me through her dreams. She kept replaying that scene, over and over again, and every single time she cried for hours on end.
   "It's all part of the trick. She's learned the secrets to dreams, they're fairly simple to manipulate actually. She's trying to convince you that this really hurts, but you, my friend, are smarter than that." Kris's lecture of how I shouldn't give in to the dreams was starting to get old. If I wanted, I could mimic him word for word, as it's exactly the same every time. Don't give in and It's all a trick.
   A trick...
   Is that all it ever was? A trick?
   Part of me didn't believe that.
   But I couldn't tell if that was the part of me that was still slightly hopeful, or the logical part of me.
   Or both...
   "Yeah, yeah, that's enough out of you," Daisy said as she stuffed Kris's mouth with garlic bread. He glared at her. "He's heard the same speech for the past week, I think he gets it already." Kris looked at me. I gave him the 'yeah kinda' shrug.
   "By the way, this is amazing Daisy, thank you," I said as I took a bite of spaghetti. This past week I'd discovered Daisy was a great cook, always making delicious food, every single meal. Pretty surprising for a teenager.
   Although, she's probably been a teenager for a long time...I suppose she's had a lot of practice.
   "Oh, well, um, no problem..." Her cheeks became bright red. She's also quite modest.
   "Well, I'm going to sleep, hopefully." I got up and walked to the room they'd given me. Laying down felt good on my tired back, but I didn't catch much sleep. Every time I drifted off, all I heard was Adri's screams. I eventually gave up and got up to go get a drink of water. Voices in the kitchen stopped me from opening the door.
   "I don't understand why you're doing this though..." Daisy said.
   "He'd never go along with it if I didn't, he loves her," Kris replied. They're talking about me.
   "And she loves him..." Daisy whispered.
   "What he doesn't know won't kill him."
   I staggered away from the door.
   Adri loves me. Is that true?
   The entirety of my body screamed YES!
   But if so then...Why is he lying to me?
   What else has he lied about?
   Have I even heard a single truth since he brought me here?
   Who is Kris?

~Chapter 21~

   Why can't my visions come sooner than they do!? Always in the early morning! No no no can't see tomorrow the night before, oh no! That would make things too easy!!! Ugh!! Woke up this morning to see Adri crying and Caleb flying and black as night feathers and harsh words and god! It hit me so hard I started crying just for Adri's pain!
   Now I stood at the corner of her street where in my vision I saw Caleb speak to her, then turn and leave. I walked down the street where I saw her walking with those terrified eyes. Knocked on the door she had stepped out of and shown a sad smile to the sky. Then the girl who's eyes were still red from the tears that she had no doubt just wiped off her face opened up the door and looked at me with those sad eyes.
   I walked right past her into her house. "Okay, I've got pizza- half olive and half pineapple, just how you like it-"
   "Lil-"
   "-two giant bags of Doritos-one nacho cheese and one cool ranch-"
   "Liliana-"
   "-four tubs of Ben&Jerry's Cherry Garcia ice cream, and two boxes of Oreos."
   "That's great, but-"
   "I also stopped by Blockbuster; I got Peter Pan with the real people, Pan's Labyrinth, the first three Indiana Jones movies, and the first four Harry Potters. I know it sounds pretty vigorous, but I think we can watch 'em all if we get right to it. Now come on, get out your sleeping bag, we're going all out sleepover here."
   "Liliana!"
   After finally setting everything down, I looked up at her. "What?"
   "What about school? It's Tuesday. Not only that, but it's still 9 a.m! What are you even doing here? You should be at school!"
   "So should you! And yet you're not. Don't worry about explaining, I already know," I pointed to my head, "I understand why you don't want to go to school, and there's no way in hell I'm leaving you alone. Plus, come on, missing one stupid day isn't going to hurt me. Now do you plan to stand there and just stare at me, or are you going to help me set up the movie and get this sleepover started?"
   Adriana looked at me in amazement for a few moments, as if searching for something to say, but eventually her eyes got watery. She just walked over to me and wrapped her arms around me, crying into my shoulder.
   "I love you, Lil," she said between sobs. I stroked her hair.
   "Love you too Adri."

~Chapter 20~

   She's crying, I thought. Part of me wanted to rush back to her, put my arms around her, tell her I'm sorry, that it's all okay, that I'm here for her... That I'm here...
   But I didn't.
   I couldn't. She wasn't there for me when I needed her. That showed it all. She never truly loved me, these tears are just her frustration, her wishing that she could get me back on her side... It's all for the war.
   Right?
   "NO!!!"

   The pain and suffering in her scream was like snapping a cord somewhere inside me. It hurt. A whole damn lot. Physically and mentally.
   And it also woke me up.
   Damn it. Another of those dreams. According to Kris, they're sort of real. Adriana is trying to contact me through my dreams, make me feel sorry for her, make me believe her and come back. I guess our spirits are connected that strongly through the past life.
   I took a deep breath. That's not going to happen.
   In some dreams she tells me I'm not really me right now. Well, she's wrong. Like Kris said, she never knew me in the first place. Didn't love me, only used me. Like Kris said.
   I got up and walked out to the kitchen area where, like every morning, Kris and Daisy were already up. Daisy was making something that smelled good and Kris was just sitting at the table, waiting. When he saw me, he smiled.
   "Good morning Caleb."
   I grunted in response as I sat down and held my head in my hands.
   "Had another dream?"
   I nodded.
   Kris was quiet for a while, then said, "I might know how you can get her to stop."
   I looked up at him. He looked cautious and maybe a little fearful, though I wasn't sure since he never seems scared of anything.
   "There's something I've been meaning to talk to you about actually."
   At this I sat up. Is the mysterious Kris finally going to reveal a few secrets? Tell me what's happening?
   "You remember I mentioned a war, right?" Kris asked slowly, as if choosing his words carefully. Daisy left the stove and whatever she had been cooking and sat down beside Kris, eying me curiously.
   "Yeah...?"
   "Well...I'm not exactly sure how to explain this..." Kris looked to Daisy for help.
   "It's no ordinary war," she said, "it goes back to your past life. That's about when it started."
   "What countries is it between?" I asked, wondering how on Earth Adri could be mixed up in a war. Peace-loving Adri.
   Kris and Daisy looked at each other. "Not countries," Kris said.
   "States?"
   "Think bigger..." Kris murmured.
   "Continents?" No way, this would be in the news or something.
   "Bigger..." Daisy whispered.
   "There is no bigger unless you're aliens or something."
   "Um...not exactly..."
   "We're...sort of..." Kris and Daisy shared a look. "Dead." Kris said.
   I just stared at them blankly.
   Then I tried to laugh.
   But they were completely serious. "What."
   "Long ago, we died, and our souls went to Hell. We're demons. But you, Caleb. You died long before us, and were an angel, married to Adriana, as king and queen of Heaven. But you were being deceived by her. She was good at first, that's why she was of Heaven in the first place, but she became corrupt with power, and used you. See, Heaven and Hell had once coexisted. We were at peace, no war, no agitation. Really, we were all contempt with our afterlives. But then I realized Adriana's corruption. I saw that she was deceiving you, and was going to warn you. But before I could, Adriana waged war on Hell to stop me. But, knowing that angels would reincarnate were they to be killed, I took one last desperate attempt to save you. I distracted the rest of Heaven with a main attack, and in the meantime, went directly to you and Adriana. I attempted to kill you, so that your soul may be saved and reborn without her evil, but she got in my way. I was going to simply take her prisoner so that her immortal spirit would not cause trouble, but I accidentally killed her, causing her to reincarnate. And after that, you tried to kill me, since you loved her, so in self-defense, I had to kill you. I kept a small hope that maybe she would not be tainted in this life, but it appears that she was. This is why I stepped in to save you from falling for her tricks once again. Yes, I purposely killed you with negative and hateful feelings towards her and your own love to make you become a demon like us, but it was only to save you, and hopefully end this damned war once and for all. With you on our side, we may have a chance to defeat them and finally restore the order that once was."
   I stayed silent for a long time while I soaked it all in.
   I wasn't so sure I trusted his words. It all seemed to correlate with the images I had in my head, his story of Heaven and the war and him killing us, but something didn't seem right. I couldn't see his face in the images. Why? Why couldn't I see his face?
   "So what does this have to do with my dreams?"
   "Well," said Kris, "you can go tell Adriana to stop it in person. See, you have the ability to visit Earth. Demons aren't trapped in Hell, just like angels aren't trapped in Heaven. We can visit and look like normal humans. So, you could visit Adriana and tell her to stop calling you."
   See Adri? Am I ready for that? It's been kind of hard without her, am I ready to face her yet?
   "How?"

~Chapter 19~

   "Caleb... Come with me," I said, hand outstretched towards him. The look he gave me was severe, scary.
   "When will you let it go?" He asked. "I don't love you."
   I fell to my knees as he walked away, tears streaming down my cheeks. "NO!!" I yelled after him, but he kept walking, going, leaving, fading into the distance, leaving me alone to fade into the darkness surrounding me...

   I sprung straight up from my bed, heart racing, gasping for breath, just like you do in those dreams where you just died and wake up the second you're about to hit the ground after falling off a cliff or something. Another one... I sighed and shut off the alarm clock that I realized had been what woke me up in the first place. Another stupid day of school I have to get up for... Not like I'll learn anything. I haven't been able to focus at all, ever since Caleb... ever since Caleb left me...
   Caleb...
   After finally getting up and ready for school, I opened the front door to my house, expecting to see the rain that had been plaguing the sky for the past week. Instead, I found a beautiful clear blue sky, with only a rainbow betraying the secret that there had been rain. Well, at least there's nice weather today... If nothing else...
   I stepped out into the daylight and began my walk to school.
   And then I saw him.
   At first I thought I must be imagining things. Then I considered that maybe I had somehow been transported back in time a month or so. Hell, I'm the reincarnation of the queen of Heaven, why not? But it wasn't. I wasn't imagining things, nor had any time leap happened.
   Caleb was standing at the corner of the sidewalk, waiting for me, just like he used to every morning.
   There's no way...
   His eyes found me and stayed on me as I approached him. "Caleb...?"
   "Adri." His voice was flat, emotionless. It stung, but the very familiarity of it healed a little cut inside me. Only a little one.
   "Are you really Caleb?" I asked cautiously. Is it really possible that maybe he came back? Made the change? Realized the truth?
   "I'm always really Caleb," he said with a little condescension. All those questions I just asked? No.
   "No," my voice cracked with the coming tears, "the last Caleb I talked to wasn't really him. And neither are you."
   Finally some real emotion came to his face. But, it wasn't the kind of emotion I wanted. He became mad at this statement. Rage and annoyance thick in his voice, he asked, "And how would you know Adriana!?" I winced at my full name. So serious, so formal, so...hurtful... "How would you know what's really me and what's not!?"
   My instinct to yell back kicked in. "Because I know you! I know you better than anyone else!" The tears broke free from my eyes.
   "No you don't! You never knew me Adriana! This is me! Right here, right now, this is me!" He paused, I said nothing. "Whoever you thought you knew doesn't exist." His voice had calmed a little bit, but the anger was still present. "So stop looking for him."
   Before I had a chance to respond, Caleb turned from me and walked away, quickly turning the corner. I rushed after him, but when I ran around the corner, I didn't see Caleb. I saw a demon. A sick portrayal of Caleb, with feathered wings sprouted from his back, the slick black of night. He turned his head to glance back at me with cold, piercing eyes, then took off, leaving me alone to fade into the darkness that I almost wished was surrounding me.

~Chapter 18~

   What am I going to do...?
   First Ai, then Nolan, who was SUPPOSED TO bring Ai back. Everyone who goes to Earth doesn't come back! Soon, I might have to go there too to find out what's been going on! What is taking them so long!? Heaven needs them...
   As if listening to my very thoughts, I heard a familiar voice say, "Miranda, we're back."
   It took me a few seconds to register, so I very lamely and stupidly let slip a mindless, "Huh?"
   Then I looked up at the voice, and everything clicked in my brain as the girl with long white-blond hair and bright blue eyes standing next to the boy with the short brown hair and green eyes bent down in front of me with her hand up, waving her fingers in a "hello" gesture, and with a friendly smile on her face said, "Hey."
   A wide smile spread across my face. "Ai!" I leaped up and hugged her. "You're finally back!"
   She laughed as she returned my hug. "Sorry I took so long."
   She, Nolan, and I all sat down. "What's been happening? Do they remember yet?"
   The smile on Ai's face faded and she looked down at the ground. Nolan stood up and began pacing back and forth.
   "Well... Sort of..." Ai muttered. Sort of? What? How is that possible?
   Nolan finally spoke. "Adriana has remembered everything," he sighed. "But Caleb's memories...Well..." He trailed off. Ai spoke up.
   "We think they've just been a little mixed up."
   Before I had a chance to respond with one of the numerous question which appeared at this, Nolan raised his voice. "A little mixed up!? He's a freaking demon!" Ai flinched away from his yelling voice, but had a look of understanding in her eyes when she looked at him. For a split second I wanted to smile. They finally hooked up. Then my mind returned to the real world. Did he say demon?
   "What? How is that even possible!?"
   Nolan, who stopped pacing to stand still with his hand gripping his forehead as if it would burst, shook his head and said, "We don't know." His grip on his forehead tightened. "All we know is that it is, and Kris," he spat the name as if it were a curse word, "did it."
   I felt as though I would loose consciousness. "This is terrible... What will we do?"
   "Nothing," Ai said, voice barely above a whisper. I looked at her, worried she'd gone insane. She looked back at the door she and Nolan had just come through, which led to a platform in which people went to and from Earth. "It's up to them now." She sighed. "I hope they're alright."

~Chapter 17~

   I am going to kill her. I am sooooo going to kill her. Damn it! Where did Adri go!? After Ai and Nolan left, I explained to Adri everything which had happened, and then we both went home. But today, she didn't show up at school! I've called her and texted her and stopped by her house and asked her mother where she was, but she didn't know, so I've been walking around town looking for her for over an hour now with no luck! Where did she go!?
   As I neared the bridge overlooking the small lake in our town, I saw a girl with brown hair leaning against the railing, looking down at the fish in the lake. It's her! I found her!
   "Adriana! There you are!" She slowly looked up at me. She looked as though her soul had left her, lifeless, her face blank, mind void of thought.
   "Liliana," she said after staring at me for a few moments.
   "What's up? I've been looking for you all day." I leaned against the railing beside her.
   Her voice was just above a whisper. "I don't know what to do Lil..."
   "Adri..." She began to cry. I took a quick deep breath, then stood up straight, stomping my foot against the ground in the process. She jumped and looked at me in surprise. "Look," I said, taking on a strong tone. "I know you're sad and depressed, but crying over this isn't going to help anything! Right now, what you need to do, is stand up straight, wipe off your face, and start thinking!"
   "But-"
   "No!" I interrupted. "In the past life you were Adriana, Queen of Heaven! You were a strong ruler who all looked up to! You were strong then, and you can be now!"
   Finally, I got her to raise her voice. Unfortunately, it was in anger. "But it hurts Liliana! It hurts, so much! He left me! He hates me!! He's with them, and against us! But I love him! I love him more than anything, and-!" Her voice cracked as more tears flooded her eyes. "And he doesn't love me!"
   "Adri..." I sighed. "Adriana, he does love you. You know that! You can't for one second believe that he doesn't!"
   "But he said-"
   "They've been messing with his head, Adriana! They turned him into a demon! Who knows how the hell they did it, but they did! But he does love you and that is not going to change! It doesn't matter what they do to him, he will always love you and he will always be the Caleb that you love."
   "But he's not! Not right now, you said it yourself, he's a demon!"
   "But we can change that! He's still in there, we just have to bring him out! We can do it, together."
   She looked at me, tears streaming down her face, with a helpless look. "But what if we can't?"
   "We can." She didn't look convinced. "We will."

   How can Liliana be so sure of everything? So sure that this is all going to be okay? Just because she can see the future doesn't mean she knows everything that's going to happen!
   Okay, maybe it does...
   But still! She can't see that far ahead. Just into the next day or so. So how can she be so confident that we'll be alright? She doesn't know! None of us do! Yet still, everyone is trying to tell me that I can do it, that we can do it. But what if I can't? What if we can't?
   So I asked her that. "But what if we can't?"
   "We can." You don't know that... "We will."
   Something about the tone in her voice and the look in her eyes reminded me of my days as an angel. As a ruler of Heaven, I was strong, just as she's being now. I was wise, and kept my head level during times like this. But I'd always had Caleb by my side before...always there to hold me when I cried, to help me contain my feelings, help me be strong. Now he wasn't here, and I needed him more than ever.
   But here was Liliana, being as I used to. This experience has matured her. It's time that I be mature. I can  do this. With Liliana's help, I can. We, Liliana and I, will do this.
   I looked up to the sky, and closed my eyes.
   Caleb, I'm coming for you.