The Vision Read Free

not in an intentional way like it usually was. The color of his green eyes popped against the black t-shirt he was wearing. My happiness and thril of seeing him bubbled up inside me and I just about ran over and threw my arms around him. It was a bit of a shock, feeling this way toward him, and I wondered how deep my feelings for him were getting. It was extremely confusing to think about.
    But I resisted the urge to run over to him, remembering Stephan’s words: If you stay close to each other for too long the star’s power will fade out. And so will you and Alex.
    “Hey, did you find him?” Alex asked, before I got a chance to speak. He shut the door and walked up to me, creating a bit of a problem because the electricity was firing up like a firework show.
    I took a step back. “Did I find who?”
    He furrowed his eyebrows. “Laylen.”
    I was so confused. “Why…Did something happen to him?”

    Alex looked as confused as I felt. “Yeah, he disappeared remember. Everyone’s been out looking for him. I take it, though, you didn’t find him.”
    WTF. What was he talking about? “But I’ve been gone for nine days.”
    He looked at me like I was insane. “No you haven’t.”
    “Yes I have…oh…” My mouth fell open as it dawned on me.
    “Gemma, what’s wrong?” His bright green eyed gaze moved all over me. “Why are your clothes all wet?” He took the crystal ball from me and turned it over in his hand.
    “Where did you get this?”
    I didn’t answer. I just stood there, with my mouth agape, struggling to grasp what was going on. My father had sent me back to before Nicholas had captured me and handed me over to Stephan—before I had spent nine days locked away in the cabin. And he did not send me back in vision form. I was here in the present, and I could communicate and touch things…I think.
    Without even thinking, I reached out and placed my hand on Alex’s arm. The electricity surged against our contact.
    “Holy crap,” I whispered. I took the crystal ball from him and sank down on the couch that smelled of salt water and sand. “I can’t believe it.”
    Alex sat down beside me, a concerned look on his face.
    “Gemma, please tell me what’s wrong.”
    I swallowed hard. “Something happened to me.”
    “Okay…do you want to tell me what it is?” I slowly nodded and then started to explain everything that had happened to me—or didn’t happen I guess I should say, because if I was here at this very moment, then those nine days at the cabin never took place. I was back where I started only now I had a unique crystal ball in my hand and a ton of new unanswered questions.
    I knew right away that I shocked the heck out of Alex. His eyes were wide and his mouth was slightly hanging open. It took him a minute, after I finished explaining, to say something
    “So what you’re saying,” he spoke slowly, “is that right now we’re nine days in the past.”
    I shook my head. “I don’t think so. I think the nine days I spent at the cabin were somehow erased.” I set the crystal ball in my lap, thinking about what my father said about how he erased a vision and recreated it. “I think, somehow, my father erased and recreated some of the events of my life, so that I would end up back here.”
    “So that my father never got a hold of you?” Alex asked, still looking really lost.
    It was weird having him ask me questions, and it kind of sucked because I didn’t have answers to give him. “I don’t know...I’m not sure how it works. He only told me he erased a vision and recreated it to change the outcome of the world’s future.” I twisted the crystal ball in my hand, staring at the glowing purple star inside. “He said he changed it so that the world would end the way I saw it in my ice-vision.” Alex’s forehead creased over. “Are you saying that he made it so my father could end the world?” I felt kind of ashamed of my father. “I think so.” Alex stared off into space,