Oblivion

Chapter 19

Petersburg changed in small, infinite ways over the following weeks. It wasn’t just the steady rise of temperatures, heralding that winter was now a not-too-distant memory. Or the restlessness that always surrounded the thaw-out accompanying the warmer months.

The small, mostly unknown town in a state that a god-awful number of people still referred to as “western” Virginia was yet again the center of another missing persons case.

Candlelight vigils were held for Carissa on a weekly basis, and her parents appeared on the nightly news, pleading for any information regarding the disappearance of their daughter. A somberness settled over the school, and I knew there was more than just sadness driving the whispers whenever I saw groups of students huddled together, watching Dawson or one of us. Suspicion was buried very deeply, because out of the people to disappear, Dawson had been the only one to ever return.

And Dawson’s return had signaled the disappearance of others.

Carissa’s disappearance triggered a morbid curiosity in the broader world. News crews showed up, wanting to talk to anyone who knew Carissa or had a theory on why so many teens—Bethany, Carissa, Simon, and even Adam to name a few—disappeared in this sleepy little town.

Bet the DOD and Daedalus just loved that.

And then, around three weeks after Carissa disappeared, Dr. William Michaels became news. His sister reported him missing, and from what Kat could gather, he’d also stopped contacting her mother. Investigators had informed Ms. Swartz that there had been no conference—no shit—and no one else had heard from Will since he’d left Petersburg.

More whispers.

Some suspected that Will had something to do with Carissa and Simon. They all disappeared one after the other, and no one could fathom how a well-known, respected doctor could just vanish. Some believed that Will had to have something to do with their disappearances, maybe even others.

Part of me wondered if the DOD was behind the sudden slanting of the news. Made sense. We knew that Will had betrayed them, and he now made the perfect scapegoat.

But the inevitable happened.

As the grass started to turn green and the wind whipping through the budding trees warmed, people…people moved on. It wasn’t that they forgot Carissa or Simon or anyone else. It was just what happened. Life happened. By mid-April, it stopped becoming nightly news, and then weekly. Whispers at school were still there, but less frequent.

Kat had asked me one evening, after working with the onyx, if that was what would happen to her if we didn’t come back from Mount Weather. She wanted to know if I thought people would just forget and get over it.

Hearing her ask that kind of question was like having my heart shoved into a blender. No one should ever wonder if they would be forgotten one day. I came up with some kind of pseudo-intellectual response that sounded legit, but her question had kept me up most of that night.

Would Kat be forgotten one day?

Would I?

I knew that one day, no matter what, we’d become one of those statistics. It wasn’t something Kat and I talked about, but I think she knew, too. If we succeeded in freeing Bethany, there would be consequences. Staying here wouldn’t work. We’d have to leave, possibly even go into hiding. I had money saved up to make that transition work for at least a period of time, but that didn’t make it easy to think about or accept.

I’d changed Kat’s entire life.

And sometimes I could admit how ridiculously selfish I was, because there were moments, many of them, where I knew I wouldn’t change a thing. Made me a shitty person, totally got that, but I tried the whole stay-away-to-protect-her business. Didn’t work.

The only way for us to be in charge of our future, to willingly disappear one day, was to prepare ourselves for our next Mount Weather raid.

We focused on training with the onyx every day that we could. Repeatedly exposing ourselves to the damn stones drained all of us of energy. After every session, Kat and I crashed, and I think we spent more time dozing than we did anything else.

Progress was slowly, painfully being made. Each of us was able to increase our resistance, and by the begi

Ash and Dee had started joining us just to watch us basically mutilate ourselves, and today had been the first time Ash tried out some onyx, much to Kat’s amusement. I’d tried to deter Ash, but she didn’t listen. She’d lasted a whole second before shrieking and dropping the stone.

Ash couldn’t understand, after experiencing the pain firsthand, how anything or anyone would be worth subjecting themselves to this, and she was obnoxiously vocal about this, upsetting Dawson. He’d stormed off from the lake and I had followed, talking him down. Dawson had gotten a lot better at handling the rawness of his emotions, but there were still moments when I feared that he was going to run out of the fragile patience and go after Bethany on his own.

Once I was sure Dawson was as settled as he could be, I headed back to the lake. Halfway, I ran into Blake.

He kept a decent distance from me. “How is he?”

Ignoring him, I kept walking. Dawson’s current state was none of his business.

Blake sighed. “Kat is still down by the lake. I didn’t want to leave her—”

Stopping, I wheeled around so fast he looked like he got whiplash from it. He must’ve seen something in my stare, because he quickly backed off with his hands in the air.

“I just didn’t want her to be out here by herself.”

My hands curled into fists. The fact that he acted as if he were Kat’s protector was revolting, but truth was, it had been smart of him to hang around. Being alone, out in the open, wasn’t wise. I watched Blake disappear among the trees before I resumed my trek. I broke free of the last couple of trees and stopped walking. Probably stopped breathing, too.

Everyone had left except Kat. Near the edge of the lake, she lay in the sun, her head resting on the springy grass. Eyes closed and dark hair spread out around her, she was just…just lovely. Walking toward her, I realized she was asleep.

I couldn’t let myself think about the fact that Blake had been creeping nearby while she slept, even if it were necessary. If I did, it would ruin this moment, and dear God, Kat and I had seriously been lacking one-on-one time that didn’t involve us passing out due to exhaustion.

A tired smile tugged at my lips as I stretched out on my side beside her. Propping my head up on my hand, I watched her for a few moments. I thought about what I’d ordered for her over the weekend. It should be here by tonight, and I chuckled as I pictured her expression when she saw it.

If I were a good guy, I’d let her sleep, but I was unable to help myself. I brushed my lips over hers.

Her lashes fluttered and then swept up, revealing soft, unfocused gray eyes. “Hey,” she murmured.

“Hey there, sleeping beauty…”

Kat smiled. “Did you kiss me awake?”

“I did.” I placed my hand on her stomach. “Told you, my lips have mystical powers.”

She laughed. “How long have you been here?”

“Not long.” My eyes searched hers. “I found Blake skulking around the woods. He didn’t want to leave while you were out here.”

Kat rolled her eyes.

“As much as it bothers me, I’m glad he didn’t.” It actually pained me to admit that, like cutting off my own nose or some crap.

“Wow. Pigs are flying.” When I narrowed my eyes, she used her fingers to brush the hair that had fallen over my forehead back. My eyes drifted shut. It was incredibly soothing whenever Kat fooled around with my hair. “How’s Dawson?” she asked.