You're Not in This Alone

That was the first night I managed to intentionally banish all of my prophetic dreams. Every time I felt a dream – most likely a nightmare – creep into my subconscious mind, I was able to push it away before I actually woke up. I saved myself a lot of pain that night, but in the end it probably wasn’t worth it.

In the morning, I realized that I had out slept Ebony. This rarely happened anymore. She was waiting for me to wake up. The expression on her face made me sit up abruptly. I’d seen it before, on the morning before the world ended.

“What’s wrong?” I shot out urgently.

She closed her eyes and shook her head. “I don’t know, but something is very wrong. My job is to know something’s wrong and what we’re supposed to do. Your job is to see what’s wrong in your dreams. What was it, Gerard? I know you can tell me this time. It’s not the thing you can’t talk to me about.”

“Ebony, I didn’t have any dreams last night,” I answered, feeling scared.

“Yes you did!” she insisted. “Why are you lying? I know you dreamed about it! I know for sure.”

I felt my skin get cold. “No. No, last night was the first night I forced my dreams away because I didn’t want to deal with them,” I said truthfully.

Her eyes widened. “This is the first time I’ve ever been wrong,” she breathed in shock. “And we don’t know what’s going to happen.”

“Maybe it’s better,” I replied quietly, looking away from her. “It’s not like we can change it.” I was scared, though. The bad thing I’d been dreaming about often wasn’t going to happen today. Something else was. “Just try to enjoy your birthday,” I suggested. “Maybe if you were wrong about me dreaming about it, you’re wrong about something bad happening at all.”

“I hope so,” she whispered. We got dressed. Seeing that it was almost noon, we decided to wait to eat until we got back.

When we appeared in the family room of the supply house, chaos erupted. Almost before Ebony and I saw the crowd of kids in front of us, we were nearly plowed over by the hug of a ten year old girl.

“Jesus, Sarah!” Ebony exclaimed before returning the hug. “You don’t have to kill us!”

“I missed you!” she cried.

“We all did,” Grace added.

“Aw,” Ebony said, “we missed you too, but we also had fun. Thanks for the gift, Sarah, Skyler, Nadia, Ethan, Lance and Miranda.”

“I should thank you too,” I put in. “It was a gift as much for me as it was for Ebony.”

“Well, we know you guys needed some time away from taking care of a bunch of kids,” Nadia admitted.

“Yeah, but we love you guys,” Ebony said. That was when Grace noticed her ring.

Her strange sight-but-not-sight sense assisted her. She rushed forward to feel Ebony’s hand and exclaimed, “Is that a ring?” Needless to say, the next half hour was full of congratulations, laughter, and happiness. Everyone had succeeded in making Ebony forget that something bad was going to happen, but I hadn’t forgotten.

After eating lunch, we decorated the basement of the house we were having our party in. The girls went all out with streamers, balloons, crazy lights, and anything sparkly. A pile of gifts sat on the table with a beautiful cake frosted in an amateur manner.

The guys and I got ready in one house, and the girls got ready in another. None of us were surprised we made it to the decorated basement fully dressed before the girls did. We turned on the music and waited with Skyler keeping watch for us.

“They’re coming down the stairs,” he finally announced. “Shelby first, and then from youngest to oldest.” We scrambled to our feet.

Shelby emerged in a floor length dress that was white with a light pink splashed design. It was held up by spaghetti straps. Leo met her at the stairs and took her hand.

Sarah came next in a simple purple plaid dress with short sleeves and lace around the neckline and hem. Nadia was right behind her in a cream colored knee-length dress with a black bow around her stomach. Skyler and Ethan led them off to the side, both smiling.

When Grace appeared, Jason almost had a heart attack. Her short black dress had short sleeves, but it came low, was loose, and had a ruffled material. Her bright red heels not only made her taller, but also matched her hair. Jason was almost too amazed to walk up to her and grab her hand, but not quite.

Miranda emerged wearing a shiny red dress with a sheer red covering, held up by a halter top. Lance kissed her cheek before they stepped aside to reveal Faith in a grey strapless dress with black polka-dots. She and Tristan stepped aside.

Ebony didn’t appear for several suspenseful seconds. When I saw her foot clad in a sliver shoe hit the highest step I could see, I began to walk forward. Ebony wore a floor length royal blue dress. The skirt part was pinned up in a princessy manner, and the strapless top was designed with silver embroidery and sequins. I kissed her in front of everyone before whispering, “You are the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen.”

“Wait until you see me in a wedding dress,” she replied.

After a quick conversation, we decided to break normal protocol and eat the cake before starting the party. Despite Faith’s limited frosting skills, she’d baked an amazing cake. After we ate, we started the music.

It was fun to watch the little ones dance. Grace didn’t know how, so Faith and Ebony helped her. Overall it was a pretty laid-back environment.

When a slow song was put on, Sarah and Skyler and Nadia and Ethan took up a clumsy waltz, while the rest of us coupled up for a slow dance. I held Ebony tightly, glad that nothing bad had happened yet but worried about what was to come.

However, I remembered to keep a close eye on Jason and Grace. Ebony did too, and I could tell that what she saw pleased her. When the song was almost over, Jason pulled away from Grace a little bit so that they were looking each other in the eyes. Then after carefully placing his hand on her cheek, he kissed her. They pulled apart, but kissed again for longer. Both had smiles plastered on their faces when Sarah turned on the light and declared it was time to open presents.

“Wait,” Grace said. “I have to go to the bathroom.”

“Me too,” Ebony said, and they hurried upstairs before anyone else could say anything.

We waited for a few minutes before Sarah nudged Skyler and looked up at the ceiling. She wanted him to look. He took one short glance and his eyes darted back to her. He’d seen something upstairs. Her face white a snow, Sarah whispered to all of us, “Something’s wrong.”