You're Not in This Alone

Just when I thought I was about to pass out from lack of oxygen and the fire was about to touch me, I was gone. No, my spirit didn’t leave my body. My body left the burning house.

It was dark, and the brightness of the fire was still imprinted in my eyes. I was suddenly freezing cold, and I shivered. My wrists and ankles were still tied, but there was something else.

A warm hand was pressed to my mouth so I couldn’t speak, and another hand touched my shoulder. I used my senses to get my bearings, and I shivered again when I realized who was holding me. It was Jason, who I’d believed to be dead. We were hidden behind some trees, but only yards away from everyone else, including Gerard, who’d gone silent when I had.

“Please listen to me,” Jason whispered. I realized Sarah could hear us and Skyler could see us, but neither of them came to my aid at the same time I realized Nadia must’ve been the one to teleport Jason and I here. I nodded.

“My power is resurrection. I didn’t know until I tried it,” he explained. I knew he wasn’t lying, so I nodded again.

“Most of us knew it wasn’t you,” he continued. “We’re pretty sure it’s Tristan. We think it’s his power. And if we’re right, he can kill anyone at will, so it’s important to surprise him in order to kill him. Tell me. Do you think we’re wrong? We don’t want to kill him if he’s innocent.”

I thought about it, and I saw how much sense it made. And just like that, everything was revealed to me in the way it sometimes is. Of course it was Tristan. I wanted to explain everything to Jason then and there, but I sensed he was in a hurry. I shook my head. He wasn’t wrong.

“Are we right?” he asked, seeking my approval and permission, so I nodded. “Okay,” he whispered. “Stay here until Nadia takes your ropes away. This is a delicate situation.” I nodded once more.

Jason let goof me and stood up. I saw a glint of metal in his hand. “Ready,” he whispered to Sarah, and he disappeared.

I listened as he stabbed Tristan and chaos broke out. When I heard Gerard’s voice, no matter how angry it was, I felt myself relax and yearn for him at the same time. I wanted him to know I was alive.

I heard Jason and Sarah explaining how they knew it was Tristan, but at last I heard Gerard’s defeated words, “You knew it was Tristan, but you still killed Ebony only as a distraction?!”

“Please Sarah, please tell Nadia to let me go,” I pleaded quietly just before the ropes disappeared from my hands.

I ran to them, their faces lit by the burning house. “Gerard!” I cried, slamming into him and seeing Nadia had freed him too.

“Ebony,” he murmured, wrapping his arms around me like I’d done to him. “You’re alive.”

“Of course they didn’t kill me,” I said. “They were right about Tristan. I know it now. They just needed a diversion.”

He held my face in his hands and looked at me intensely. “Don’t ever scare me like that again,” he commanded.

I laughed through his kiss, which felt all the more sweet because I thought I’d never feel it again. When he let his grip loosen enough for me to turn, I saw that everyone, even Faith, was staring at us. When I looked at each of them, they all looked away except for Sarah.

“I’m so sorry,” she told me meekly. “I know you feel like I betrayed you.”

I shook my head. “It hurt,” I admitted, “but now I know it had to be done. It was important that Tristan believed you were all condemning me.”

After a few minutes of silence, Gerard addressed the sobbing Faith. “Did you know what he was doing?” he inquired, sounding more sympathetic than accusatory.

Faith nodded, bursting into more tears. “He was terribly evil,” she sobbed, “but I was still stupid enough to love him. I didn’t want you to kill him, but…” she looked ashamed. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry he killed the people you love.”

Jason was about to rebuke her, but Gerard interrupted, “You can’t condemn her for loving someone, no, can you, Jason? I know how she feels.”

Now it was Jason’s turn to look ashamed, but Shelby backed him up. “How can we just let her get away with knowing what he was doing?” she demanded. “If she’d told us, so many lives could’ve been saved!”

I was surprised when Lance defended Faith. “What if you were in her position?” he asked. “Would you have turned Leo in? Because I know I wouldn’t have turned Miranda in if she’d killed everyone in the world.”

Seeing that Lance had won over Shelby, I grasped my opportunity to tell them what I knew and they didn’t. “I’m glad you said that,” I admitted, “because that’s exactly what Tristan did. He was the one that killed everyone.”

“But why?” Sarah gasped.

I was about to supply her with the answer when Faith did it for me. “He enjoyed the thrill of killing people,” she explained, sounding tired. “Not only that, but it gave him… energy. But I think it was harder for him to kill people like us because we aren’t… human. It took him much longer, but it gave him more energy.”

“Didn’t you think he’d kill you?” Nadia asked, but Faith just shrugged.

“But if he kills people, don’t you have a related power?” Skyler asked curiously.

Faith shook her head, and her expression changed from defeated to determined. “Everything about what I can so is the opposite of Tristan, but he didn’t know. Bring me Miranda’s body.”