The Guardians - Between the Worlds (Book 2)

“Do you think she heard us?” asks Alice insecurely, walking her fingers on the table.

“She did. We must go to the connection point. We will wait there until something happens. We won’t let her down.”

Artemis shows up behind Dean, making Alice stand up.

“I will go down there first.”

He nods.

“Have you established a connection with the other Bases?”

“No. And it’s not because I’ve spent my time searching for Lily, it’s because I don’t think it’s the right time.”

“And why you don’t believe it?”

“Because I know that certain Bases are still under the influence of the chips, which means that there are people of Leonor and Zoltan among them. I don’t want them to know that we’ve built up the Base. I want them to know exactly what Leonor knows right now: that we’re still working to rebuild it. They will have a surprise when they decide to attack us.”

“I moved the kids downstairs and I activated a security system. It won’t happen what we’ve heard that happened back to the Unity. No child will be harmed if a war will start.”

“I hope that you’re right.”

Artemis touches her son’s shoulders.

“What’s with you and this girl?”

Dean looks back at her sad. He has no idea what to answer her. He doesn’t know what Lily feels for him, but he knows damn well that this girl was awakening in him all sorts of unique and tensioned feelings. He feels shivers when he remembers her shouting.

“I just want to see her here”, he answers.

Artemis smiles.

“You will. You were able to find her, and I’m sure that you will see her in front of you soon”.

Dean walks on the long corridors, to the lower floors, in his search for Alice. He stops in front of a window and looks at the sun. He feels it warming his skin and he finds himself smiling. It was because of Lily he was feeling the sun right now and, besides the sweet taste of wine, Dean feels the sun’s touch like Lily’s. He sighs long and walks away.

“Are you okay?” Alice asks Isaac when she meets him downstairs.

“Why wouldn’t I?” he replies cold.

“Lily… all the things that happened…”

“It’s better this way. You know well what happened to us on the road. I never was what she wanted me to be.”

“Isaac, if you’re not meant to be together, this doesn’t mean that you were not worthy of her. You were there for her, I saw your reactions! You love her, and if she chose to walk away from a choice like you, then it’s her lose! She’s my friend, and the situation terrifies me as well, but I see you too! If a relationship is toxic for one of you, in this case for you, you’re not supposed to carry all the burdens. Set yourself free!”

“What’s a pity is that you’re right. I was a choice for her, and it seems like I was the wrong one. Maybe this is why it all felt so good and so wrong at the same time…”

He tries to hide the trembling from his voice when Dean appears around the corner. He avoids his eyes because he can’t look at him without hate, but he knows that’s not his fault for what had happened. Dean had put his life at stake for him sometimes and, even if he did it for Lily, Isaac still felt like he owed him. He couldn’t really hate him, even if he was trying so much. He could envy him though, and it was a completely different feeling.

Brook and Leo are running on the stairs because, after the first night spent in his room, they had woken up pretty late. They didn’t have a specific hour to wake up now, neither places where they were forced to sleep. It was complete freedom, democracy, and that was why Dean was loved by all the Guardians.

“Brook, why is your T-shirt on the other side?” Gloria asks her when they meet on the stairs.

Brook blushes and doesn’t answer the question, leaving Gloria to use her rich imagination to work in finding an answer. But Gloria finds the answer inside her mind when Brook thinks about the last night:

“Damn, I want everything to be okay, I want Lily to come home, so I can sleep at peace. I want to tell her everything I feel, what I feel when Leo touches me…”

“Oh”, laughs Gloria. “That’s naughty!”

Leo hears her, but he doesn’t know that Gloria’s exclamation was about him and Brook, so he continues his run to downstairs.

From the beach, they can hear shouting, so Lily and Amelia rush to get back there.

“What is this?” asks a police officer holding the fag-end.

“Can’t you understand it’s not mine?” shouts Steph angrily.

“Neither these bottles of alcohol aren’t yours, right?” asks another.

“And the car keys as well. It seems that you’ve all been drinking alcohol. And now you want to drive?” asks again the police officer.

While they’re getting close to them, Amelia grabs Lily’s arm.

“The police. Wait. I’ve got an idea.”

She tells Lily to wait for her next to the car, and then she takes the matter into her own hands. She heads to the noisy group.

“Good evening. Sorry, do you have any idea where can I find the Roses Street? I got lost from my friends…” says Amelia standing in front of the police officers.

She discreetly waves at Steph to hand her the car keys, and when she trips behind her, she feels them in her hand.

“And they’re telling us that they’re not drunk…” mumbles a cop. “They’re barely standing on their feet!”

Amelia thanks them for the incorrect information she had received, probably on purpose by the cops, and then she heads back to the car.

“What have you done back there?”

“She unlocks the car, and Lily sits in the driver’s seat.”

“What are you doing there? Get down! Or do you know how to drive?”

“I haven’t driven other stuff but things which can levitate more… and some of them with wheels, but they didn’t have so many buttons.”

While they’re fighting for the driver’s seat, they hear a shout, and when Amelia turns around she sees the police officers ready to arrest Steph.

“Crap!” she says and jumps on the other seat. “Turn on the engine!”

“Turn on!” shouts Lily.

“Start the fucking car!”

“Start!” shouts Lily again. “It doesn’t work!”

“Damn it, Lily! This is not on voice command! I don’t know how’s in your world, but here you have to use the keys that you’re holding in your hand!”

Lily starts the car guided by Amelia, and she starts driving fast, heading to the group from the beach.

“Right! Turn right!” shouts Amelia, but too late because Lily hits the wooden fence from the beach, making the cops turn their attention on them.

“Police! Stop!”

But Lily does whatever the hell she wants, so she goes around the cops, nearly driving over them, while the others climb up in the car how they can. Lily drives away with speed, and they disappear into the dark streets soon.

“Slower!” shouts Amelia.

“Do you want to get away from them or do you want to be caught?” asks Lily in a serious voice.

“You have the best cousin!” says Kat laughing strong.

Amelia rolls her eyes.

“But why are we running from them? Aren’t they the good guys in your world?” Lily asks Amelia in a whisper, so only she can hear her.

“Yes, they are.”

“And why are we running?”

“Because we are the bad guys here.”

“But that’s impossible!”

“Lily, we have some things called laws, and if you break them you are punished.”

Lily remembers terrified about the punishment received back at the Base, and she starts trembling.

“We have rules too, and you’re punished too if you break them.”

“See? It’s just that here you feel good to break the rules sometimes!”

“So does in my world.”

“So you’ve broken some rules yourself. I see that you’re used to it.”

“Aha…” mumbles Lily.

After some time, when they’re sure that they are not followed by the police, Amelia insists that Steph get behind the wheel because she trusted more her drunk friend than Lily awake. So, when Lily’s next to her again, both of them in the back of the car, Amelia can’t help to ask her personal questions.

“Who is Dean?”

Lily feels a claw in her throat, and her skin is all goosebumps. She remembers the moment when she called his name, and that was when she felt closer than ever to home.

“He is… I don’t really know. A man who made me feel safe.”

“That’s it? I thought that you were in a relationship or something. The way you shouted his name… Let me ask you another thing. Do you have any relationship? What’s like in your world? Is it like here?”

“Isaac”, says Lily coldly. “I had a relationship with him, but something broke on the way. I don’t know, I couldn’t feel that spark anymore. I chose to go with him, but on our way, I realized how much I missed…”

“Dean?”

“The Base I was a part of”, continues Lily.

“From your voice, I can tell that it was someone back at the Base you missed so much. Tell me about Isaac.”

“Isaac is a loving man, who was always there for me. He would give up on his life for me, and I know that he loves me too much. He is tall, we complete each other in a fight, he’s so good-looking, blonde with blue eyes…”

“And Dean?”

“Oh”, she lets an involuntary sound to come out. “Dean is special, in his way of touching your soul with his words, his sweet way of speaking to you, his walking, his fighting… And you can easily get lost in his yellowish-green eyes, something special… It’s like you forget about the whole world’s existence when you’re with him…”

Lily can’t stop talking anymore, but finally, Amelia understands the idea and she stops her.

“And, with all of these, you still chose Isaac. Why?”

“Well, I loved him. I love him.”

“You don’t believe yourself.”

“It’s not this! Believe me, I truly love him! I feel something different and special for him, I don’t know…”

“Lily, my dear, I think you have a big problem because in our world it’s something that we call soap opera. This is what your life is right now. You should sort things out, to figure out what you feel, because it’s not good to chase two rabbits…”

“But they’re Guardians, not rabbits!”

Amelia rolls her eyes, but can’t stop laughing.

“It’s just something we use to say.”

“Oh.”

“Don’t chase two Guardians, because you won’t catch either of them.”

“But I don’t have any of them! I broke up with Isaac, well, he broke up with me, because I was acting weird, distant, and he said that I should have stayed back at the Base because I wanted that! But it wasn’t like that! I went with him because I knew that he needed me… and that’s how I ended up here…” she says sadly.

“Come on, it’s not that bad here. We will help you get back, so you can continue doing what you’re doing best.”

Lily smiles, but she feels some kind of sadness in her soul. A part of her wants to stay here, but another part desperately wants home. The wind touches her hair and she feels cold. She stretches to grab Amelia’s jacket when she sees a couple of headlights coming straight at them. Steph pulls the wheel, and she manages to stop the car in time and avoid a tragedy.

“What the hell? Can’t you see the road? Did you think of racing now? Here?” she starts shouting angrily.

“Steph…” Amelia tries to tell her something.

“Of course you did because it’s night and that’s why hooligans like you do at night!”

“And bullies like you, who run away after they hit people!” shouts Raphael getting out of one of the cars.

He is accompanied by another guy, and from the other car get down another guy and a girl.

“So, who is the one who put you all down?” asks the girl curiously.

“It’s me”, says Lily.

“Shut up!” says Amelia. “Don’t explain yourself!”

“Oh, so you are. Such a small being to put them down? Interesting. I haven’t seen you around. Who are you?”

“I’m Amelia’s cousin”, Lily answers proudly.

Amelia hits her forehead with her palm, and the tension between them starts to vanish when Steph starts laughing. Lily didn’t realize that the word “cousin” had something to do with Raphael as well.

“Oh, really?” asks Raphael laughing too. “What a thing, you see, because I had no idea I had a cousin who was a specialist in martial arts or something like that.”

“Oh”, says Lily, realizing that she had been talking bullshit all the time. “This messed up world…” she mumbles.

Raphael goes near Amelia and grabs her arm, trying to pull her with him.

“You’re coming with me. And you’re lucky that you didn’t hit me back because now it would have been a big problem for you”, he tells Jason. “You were such idiots to shout that you’re going to the seaside that all the town has heard you singing in the car on your way there!”

“Enough! She can decide what she does with her life! She’s not coming with you!” shouts Jason, pulling Amelia from his arms.

“Do you think this is a negotiation? She’s my sister, you idiot! I won’t allow her to be with a guy like you, especially when I know you damn well!”

“That was because I was hanging out with you and your group! But since I kept my distance from you, my problems suddenly vanished! Maybe hers will do the same if she walks away from you too!”

Raphael seems to catch fire of anger, and he rushes to hit Jason again. Amelia gets between them, pushing both away from each other.

“Enough! I’m sick of this! If one of you uses violence again, I will have Lily to handle you again!” she shouts.

Steph and Kat start laughing, while Adam remains tensed behind Jason.

“I’m not a freaking puppet for you to pass me from one to another, and not an idiot to listen to you, Raphael! If you’re the older brother that doesn’t mean that you get to dictate my life! I’m old enough to make my own decisions, and since our parents have given me an entire house to live in it with Steph, that means that they trust me enough to know that I will make the right choices. Maybe you should consider changing your friends because you’re acting too violent! From now on you will not get into my life anymore, and you won’t insult or hit Jason! He was too kind and he didn’t hit you back, and you know damn well he could have done that!”

Finally, Amelia manages to finish her speech and takes a deep breath. Steph makes her a sign with her head, and she grabs Lily with one hand, and the car key thrown by Steph with the other.

“Come on”, she says to Jason, who doesn’t think twice and jump in the car with the two of them.

“What do you think you’re doing?” asks Raphael.

“What I should have done a long time ago! I’m taking my life into my own hands!” shouts Amelia.

Steph blocks Raphael’s way, and Kat with Adam was already up in the car with the other two guys, for they were old acquaintances from the entourage. Raphael looks angrily at Steph, but he doesn’t touch her to move her away.

“What are you going to do? Hit me?” she asks making a face.

“But he has no intention of doing that. Amelia starts Steph’s car, and Lily winks at her, without her knowing exactly why. When they are far enough, Lily shouts at Steph:

“Raphael, Steph loves you too! So everything comes from the family!”

They leave them there, staring one at another, while Steph makes not a very graceful pirouette and starts blushing.

“What the hell was that?” asks Kat.

“So, Raphael, do you have something to share with us?” asks the guy he accompanied him.

Steph gets next to Raphael in the car, leaving him to sit in the driver’s seat. He’s still silent and shocked about Lily’s words. Obviously, she had been reading both their minds all along.

“Damn it”, mumbles Steph. “Adrian, I think that you should go with the other car”, she tells the boy whose seat she had taken.

Raphael nods, a sign that he was willing to talk to Amelia’s friend as well.

Lily, Jason, and Amelia are far away from the others now, and Amelia can’t wipe the shock from her face.

“When did you learn?” she asks.

“Well, I heard that Raphael feels something for Steph last night at the party, and now I heard her thoughts as well. They were pretty clear… the way she was thinking of undressing him…”

“Oh, God! Enough! He is my brother! Grose!”

Lily laughs.

“Why did you take her car and leave her there?” asks Jason.

“Because we’re going to take Lily where she needs to be. She needs us, and we will help her.”

“You can read minds as well? How did Steph know what she has to do? How did you synchronize like that?” asks Lily.

“Oh, we have something else. Seventeen years of friendship. You become that person after all this time”, answers Amelia.

“Can anyone explain to me what the hell are you talking about?”

“If I tell you, you wouldn’t believe me, but you’re stuck with me now, so you have to believe me”, Amelia tells him.

So, she starts the story with Lily’s help, trying to seem convincing.

“Are you sure this is the place?” asks Alice snapping her leg.

“Yes! This is it! Now we have to be patient!”

“It might take days!”

“Then we will wait days!” answers Dean determined.

Irene, who had appeared around to see what was happening, rolls her eyes and makes a disgusting sound. Tamara passes by her and hits her with her elbow. Brook sees that and smiles proudly, while Leo puts her arm around her neck. Isaac was sitting on the sand, and Lily’s parents are sitting as well in a corner. They’re all waiting for something, a sign from Lily, a sparkle of one of the Wall’s pieces.

But when the night falls, there are left only Lily’s parents, Alice, Dean, and Brook, who are sitting and leaning on each other, besides from Isaac, who is sitting at a considerable distance from Dean.

“I can’t wait to see her”, Brook says suddenly.

“I think that she deserves a beating for not listening to us and going to see what was that sparkling purple thing back then!” says Alice. “But first, I need to see her here.”

“I still don’t understand what was that sparkling mark on her arm”, says Isaac more for himself.

Claire looks up from the ground and tries to control her breathing.

“What mark? I haven’t heard anything about a mark until now. Is there something that you forgot to tell me?”

“A part of her arm lightened up like something was burning there. Then it disappeared”, says Alice.

She wants to ask them more, but she realizes that she might cause Lily trouble, so she keeps her questions for the moment she was going to see her again. Her daughter, the Great Guardian, the Marked One, Lily was all of these, and Claire is more than proud. Now, all that is missing is her to be there, and all can be back to normal for her.

“We will find out more when we will see her again”, says Isaac breaking the silence which had fallen again over them.

The sun sets in the horizon, leaving behind shadows and dust, but also a group of Guardians with worried hearts, tired, waiting for something that didn’t seem to come anymore, and trying their patience and feelings.

When they arrive at the base of Whiteface Mountain, Lily makes a jump and plays a little with Jason’s mind, to prove him that Amelia is not crazy as he thinks. He needs some time to recover from the shock, so he follows the silently on the path, while they know that Lily was going to recognize when she will see it. The leaves are cracking under their feet, and the darkness makes the road rough, but Amelia lightens up the path with the flashlight on her phone.

“Oh, Steph has so many to tell me! You were right, Lily! I think I’m sorry that you have to leave!”

“I’m sorry too, in a way but, in another, I want to see them again.”

Their steps bring them in front of some cliffs, where there’s only the sound of a running water.

“Are you sure it’s the right place?” asks Lily looking around.

“You don’t feel anything?”

“Nothing.”

“Can’t you see anything?”

“No…” she mumbles.

Jason gets out of the path, heading to the water. The more he walks, the more he realizes that he is approaching a strong blue light.

“Hey, what color is supposed to be the thing that you’re looking for?” he asks more shouting.

The girls can’t answer that because a crack makes them wince. They look behind and see a masculine silhouette approaching them.

“What’s happening here?” asks the voice.

Lily and Amelia slowly walk back to Jason, and they can also see the bright light coming from under the waterfall.

“We’re looking for…”

“A place where we can… you know…”

The man approaches them, probably thinking of a million of ways to continue what Amelia and Jason had started to say, but he’d rather not complete. He is a ranger and he’s heading to the hut, so he nods and walks by the blue light, without seeing it though.

“Be careful. There are wild animals around”, he says while getting away.

“Why he doesn’t see this?” asks Jason shocked.

“Because he doesn’t believe…” answers Amelia. “Only the believers can see things like this.”

“Now I see”, he speaks staring at Lily’s arm. “I can see the mark.”

He goes near her and grabs her arm with his long fingers. He is fascinated by its glowing, by its shape, by all that beautiful mark is, for it’s something unique in their world.

“No one would ever believe me anyway if I tell them”, he says disappointedly.

“This is the reason you won’t tell anyone because they will put us both away!” says Amelia taking over the command.

Lily gets closer to the bright light, and her mark starts glowing even brighter. She feels it burning her, and she touches with her fingers the blue piece of the portal, which starts lightening up the whole forest. It seems like daytime, and she sees Amelia well now, who looks back at her sadly.

“Something’s lightened up!” shouts Alice jumping on her feet.

Her voice wakes everybody up, and they wince from the dreaming state they were in. There’s a purple dot sparking in front of them, and it’s getting bigger and bigger.

“It’s just like that Lily saw”, says Isaac approaching it.

“Stay away from it! Have you forgotten what happened the last time?” asks Alice.

He takes a step back, leaving the curious who haven’t seen something like that before to stare at it.

“Lily will come through this”, says Brook excited. “I can’t believe this moment is finally here!”

Dean feels his heart racing inside his chest when he sees the piece of portal getting bigger and bigger. It’s beautiful, more beautiful than he imagined up there on the roof with Lily. He puts his arms together, but he soon covers his face with them, because emotions take over.

“I would say that I hope to see you again, but this won’t be good for you”, says Amelia seriously.

“I would say the same. I’m glad that I met you. You are a wonderful person. I will tell my people about you.”

“I want to tell you the same, but no one would believe me.”

Lily laughs and gets closer to her. She hugs her, and Amelia puts her around her back. When they touch, the two beings feel like they’re sharing the same soul for a second, same feelings, same wishes. Then, when the hug is over, Amelia remains sad.

“Make the right choice, Lily.”

“What is that?”

“Choose with your heart, not your head… Just like I did now”, she continues looking at Jason.

Lily nods and says goodbye to Jason as well.

“I feel like I know you for a lifetime, even if I spent just a couple of days with you. I wonder why”, whispers Lily.

“I feel the same. All happens with a purpose, remember this. It’s another thing that we use to say.”

“Like the one with the rabbits?”

“Just like that one”, laughs Amelia.

Lily steps through the piece of portal, touches it, looks at the two of them for the last time, and she feels the blue light getting bigger next to her. She feels the energy around her, how she becomes one with it, and she sees Amelia crying. She has the tears in her throat as well, and they don’t stop there because she knows this is the last time when she sees this beautiful world and these beautiful creatures.

“Don’t forget that I will protect you from the other side! And don’t forget me either!” shouts Lily before she disappears into the blue light.

The light that’s covering the forest starts fading away slowly until it leaves behind only darkness. Jason and Amelia are standing in the same place, looking at the water flowing between the rocks in the dark. There’s no light, only a spring, which will take away their story in its water, carry it, and make it lost in the legends told by the elder folks.

“We won’t forget you”, says Amelia clearing her voice.

Jason puts his hand around her and they both start walking away from the place that had changed their whole existence. They couldn’t share the story, but it was enough that they and Stephanie knew about this. After all, who was going to believe them? Anyway, Amelia felt safe, because she knew that someone was watching over them and protecting them with the price of their lives from a world beyond theirs, one so far away but still so alike to this. She wishes not to forget the last days, so she takes out her phone when they get back to the car.

“What are you doing?” asks Jason.

“I took her a picture when I was making light back in the forest. I wanted a memory of her, and this is all that I’ve got. It’s what will remind us that it was all real.”

Jason smiles and touches her chest.

“It’s real, and even if you haven’t taken this picture, it’s all in here. It will take me some time to understand everything, but I know that you will help me to do it.”

Amelia approves him, and she throws the last look back before they leave again for home, where the real-life waits for her. A life that she plans on changing, because Lily had landed here with a purpose, and she strongly believed that she was the sign that she needed so much.