Page 24 of Lightning Angel
Alexa could practically see questions running around her head in small specks and Cassie struggling to choose her first question.
At last, all Cassie could say was an incredulous, “What?” She blinked twice more before releasing an array of questions. “Midnight? Couldn’t she wait untilmorning? Was she drunk? Why would she be crying? But this is Melissa we’re talking about. Why would she apologize at all? What did she say?”
Alexa took another deep breath. “And that’s the most insane part of all. I still can’t wrap my mind around it.”
“What did she say?” Cassie pressed, impatient with curiosity.
“That there’s a ghost in her house who threatened her into calling and apologizing to me right away.”
“What?” Cassie sputtered a laugh and turned off the stove.
“Yeah, and unfortunately—or, fortunately rather—it’s true. Iheardit.” Alexa widened her eyes, and her heart pounded as she recalled hearing the bang from Melissa’s end of the line.
“I don’t get it.” Cassie shook her head, her amused expression replaced with bafflement. If it wasn’t for her faith in Alexa, her sister would have laughed now. They had long sworn not to lie to each other, so they trusted each other’s words even if it was next to impossible.
“Melissa heard a crash in her kitchen that woke her up. She went down to check but there was nothing amiss. She turned to go back, and then she saw this, a moving figure. She said it was like vampires moving in movies, that fast, dissolving into the air type, hard for our eyes to track. She was scared and ran back to her room, locked herself in, and saw a note on her bed that said,‘Apologize to Alexa right now or you’ll regret it’.It was signed by a strange name,Lightning Knight.
“Melissa hesitated, because of course she is Melissa, the queen, the one who doesn’t bend to anyone other than herself. Then, this ghost banged on her door. Shewas scared out of her life. She said that it banged until she dialed my number. I didn’t answer the first two times, thinking she was drunk and was calling to insult me again. But when she called the third time, I answered. The last thing I expected was to hear her wailing and apologizing.”
Alexa told her the rest of the story, and through it all, Cassie stood frozen like a statue, listening to her every word with eyes that couldn’t grow any wider. Only when she was done and a beat of silence passed between them that Cassie moved to release the breath she held all this time.
“I know it’s hard to believe…”
“And I wouldn’t even betryingto consider it if you didn’t tell me you heard the banging too.” Cassie collapsed into one of the chairs at the dining table. She rubbed her temples, obviously thinking hard.
“What do you think it is?” Alexa asked softly, taking the chair opposite, their knees brushing as she sat down. “I’ve been thinking about it even in my sleep, but none of it made sense. Do you really think it’s a ghost?”
“Ghosts don’t exist, Lex.”
“According to what we believe, despite loving fiction, what happened yesterday at Melissa’s house concerning me shouldn’t have happened, too. But itdid,so are you sure we can still say that?”
“Certainly not a ghost, really, it’s stupid.” Cassie ran her hands through her blonde hair, causing the side bangs to slip from behind her ear and frame her face. “Even if she thinks it’s ourdad’sghost, I refuse to believe ghosts are roaming around us. Ghosts aretransparent;they cannot make contact with an object, certainly not make crashes in kitchens, bang on doors, and write notes.”
“Then what? A vampire?”
“I would definitely go with that one,” Cassie replied with a small, cheeky smile. “A vampire—not to mention, a gorgeous one like Stefan, or Damon, or Edward—defending your honor.” She shook her head, laughing lightly, and ran both hands over her face. “Goodness, did the world suddenly begin rotating the other way?”
Alexa chuckled and looked down at her hands. “I’m trying to figure out the name signed in the note. Lightning Knight. Only, it doesn’t strike a familiar chord or… or anything.”
“The note.” Cassie’s head shot up suddenly. Alexa met her eyes; they were wide with an all-too-familiar look. A look Cassie got whenever she got a plot hole filled.
“Yes?”
“Alexa, thenote!” She emphasized the word, her eyes boring into Alexa’s, trying to infuse the meaning behind it through their eyes alone.
The puzzle piece clicked into place. Alexa caught the meaning, and a small gasp escaped her lips.
“But…no,that is impossible.”
“The utmost impossible has happened already. What’s more than that?”
“Still, it can’t be Tristan!” Alexa insisted, partially in disbelief that her sister thought such a thing would come from a complete stranger like Tristan. “Thisthing,it’s not normal; it’s either magical or supernatural. Tristan is neither!”
“How can you know? Did he tell you?” Cassie challenged. Before Alexa could reply, she continued, answering the question on her own. “No, he didn’t. But he knew your name when you met him at the bookstore,he was staring at you at church when you saw him, he refused to turn and face you at the bookstore, he disappeared—practicallydisappeared according to what you said—those two times when you tried to reach him. Can’t you connect the dots?”
“This is insane.” Alexa leaned back in her chair and shook her head, crossing her arms and averting her eyes from her sister.
“Precisely, because that’s how itshouldsound when something abnormal happens. You’ve read enough books for me to tell you that.”