A Life Unexpected: Holly Nather Book One (Holly Nather Series) (11 page)

I drop the subject. He is right. It’s better if I don’t ask questions. I need to forget these last few days and go on with my life. I fall asleep on the way to my house.

Brody wakes me up as he pulls into my driveway. I don’t remember telling him where I live, but I must have because he got me here with no problem. I thank him, and get out of the car. He waits until I get to the front door and waves bye. This is probably the last time I will ever see him. I wave back and knock on the door.

“Coming!” I hear my dad yell from inside. It’s late. I can’t believe he is still awake. I can’t wait to see him—to hug him. I have missed my parents and little brother so much.

The door opens and my dad freezes. He stares at me for a long time and then yells for my mom. My mom comes running down the stairs and stops at the door way. When she sees me, she starts crying and runs to me—wrapping her arms tightly around me.

“HOLLY!” She screams. “Honey, you look terrible. I know you are probably so tired and scared. I’m so happy you’re home safe! We have been so worried!” My mom says while wiping tears from her eyes.

“Thanks mom. You have no idea how much I’ve missed you guys. I’m really happy to be home.” After my emotional welcome and lots of hugging, I head up the stairs to my brother, Max’s room. He should have been asleep, but instead he is playing a video game.

“Hey knuckle head!” I say as I stand in his doorway. He looks up at me and drops his controller. He runs up to me, Mickey our dog following behind him, and wraps his arms tightly around me.

“I thought you were dead! Where have you been?” He says, almost shouting.

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you. But, I’m home now.”

“Good.” He gives me another hug and then goes back to playing his video game. I laugh and walk to my room
.

My room, my bed, my things
. I grab some pajamas from my dresser and walk to my bathroom. I look in the mirror. I
really
do look like crap. I take off my dirty clothes and get in the shower. I take longer than usual because the hot water feels so good.

I get out and dry off. I put on my pajamas and plop down on my bed. I lay here and stare at the ceiling. All I can think about is Luke and the hurt in his eyes. I grab my pillow, and put it over my face, and scream as loud as I can.
Why me? Why did this all have to happen to me?
Why is a guy I just met having this effect on me?! Just as I start to cry again, my mom cracks my door open.

“Sweetheart, can I come in?” She asks in a soothing motherly tone.

“Sure.” I sit up in my bed and wipe away the few tears that have started to fall down my cheeks.

She sits at the end of my bed and places her hand on my knee. “We were all so worried about you.” She starts to say something else, but begins to cry. “Holly, I thought I’d never see you again.”

“I’m here now, Mom. I’m okay.” I’m really
not
okay. I’m hurting, and I’m completely and utterly baffled at this whole situation. But, I can’t ever tell her about what happened. She would think I was insane.

“Where were you?”

“I know you want to know, but…Mom…I just can’t tell you.”

“We don’t have to talk about it. Not now. I’m just glad that you’re okay.” We both turn our heads to my bedroom door as my dad walks into my room. He walks over and sits down on the bed by me and Mom.

“I love you so much, Holly. I’m glad you are home. Safe. Where w—” He starts to ask where I was, and my mom starts shaking her head to stop him.

“We are going to let you get some rest, sweetie. I’m cooking a big breakfast in the morning! Goodnight. We love you.” She and dad walk to the door to leave.

“Thanks mom. But, isn’t tomorrow Friday? Don’t you have to go to work?”

Her and my dad both look at each other and then back at me. “No, tomorrow is Saturday. You must have all your days mixed up. Today is Friday.” They both walk out of the room and shut the door behind them. I lie back down in bed and try to avoid thoughts of Luke and of a world called Terri so I can sleep.

IT’S BEEN A
week and it’s been so nice being home. The college excused me from classes this past week to get things back in order. I start back on Monday. Even though things have been good this week, I won’t lie. My mind has been going insane thinking about what Luke is doing, but I do pretty good keeping myself busy so I don’t think about it too much.

I can smell breakfast, and my mouth begins to water. Dad must be the one cooking because the smoke detector hasn’t gone off yet. I sit up on the edge of my bed and stretch. I get up and open my curtains to look out my huge bay window. I sit down on the bench and stare at the snow falling. I get up and start to head out my door, when I hear something behind me. I quickly stop and turn around. Brody, Jett and Mason are standing in my room.

Shocked, with raised eyebrows, I ask, “What are you guys doing here?!”

“Luke has gone off the deep end!” Jett says, and Brody shoots him an evil stare.

“Holly, Luke is going to marry Lana,” Brody says with a serious look on his face.

“Isn’t that what we wanted to happen?” My heart skips a few beats.

“Holly, you don’t understand. We had it all wrong. Lana’s family is too strong. We found out that Lana’s parents have been working with the Poyen, and they want to run our world together. It’s going to be terrible! They also have plans of taking over Earth, since they have found out it is possible to go from our world to yours. We also found out something even more important.”

“What?”

“There is a prophecy. There has never been a relationship between our kind and a mortal. But, there is a prophecy in our world stating that if it did happen, it would bring our two worlds together and create peace. Lana and her family know about this, but they don’t want peace. They want power. They want to control your world. When they found out that Luke fell in love with a mortal…” He pauses and looks at me to make sure I’m paying attention. When I nod my head, he continues, “They all went crazy.” Okay, he just totally sugar coated that statement by the look on Jett and Mason’s faces. Looking at me again, he continues, “Their plans and agreement with the Poyen are in jeopardy. They are going to force Luke into a marriage with Lana. Once the two are married, the bond can’t be broken. Their magic will mesh together, and it will be a bond they can’t break without one of them dying. The one who breaks the bond dies. Now that Luke has agreed to marry Lana, they have stopped searching for you.”

“So, he didn’t really love me, did he? I am just part of some prophecy that was supposed to happen?” I feel dizzy and lean against the wall for support.

Brody comes and stands in front of me, puts his hands on my shoulders and says, “No, Holly he did…I mean
does
love you. He has a free will. He could have chosen any mortal to marry him. But, he truly loves you. He doesn’t know about the prophecy. We have to stop him, but he won’t even speak to me. I was going to tell him we lied because we thought it was best, but he won’t speak to me, Jett or Mason. I hoped he would see it wasn’t true in a vision, but obviously he hasn’t or he would have come back for you. We found out about him and Lana getting married from our parents. They are getting married tomorrow. We have to stop him.” I turn my head to look at my bedroom door. I have to choose. I could go downstairs and continue with a normal life that I’ve known forever, or I could choose Luke, who I just met and who is a really, really bad idea.

“So, you think you can get me there? Luke tried before and it didn’t work.”

“Yes.” All three of them say in unison.

“Okay, let’s go.” All of a sudden, the room begins to spin. The walls look like they are closing in and the ceiling and floor becomes distorted. I feel sick and my body begins to tingle. I try to reach for my dresser to support myself but my vision blurs an
d everything goes black.

I open my eyes to find myself lying in the middle of what looks like a forest. I sit up and run my hands through the plush green grass.

“Holly, are you alright?” Brody asks while walking from the woods in front of me.

“Umm yeah, I think so.” I scratch my head in confusion. “Where is everyone else? Why did I pass out?”

“I don’t know. And they are somewhere around here. I guess we all ended up in different parts of the forest,” he says while looking around. He sits down on the ground next me. “They should be here in a minute. I’ll send a message to them.”

I look at him skeptically. “You can do that? Send a message to them?”

“Yeah, pretty cool, huh?”

I nod and smile. I’m in a world of magic and who knows what else. I’m a human with no special abilities. This doesn’t look like it’s going to turn out well for me in the end. I hear footsteps from behind and see Jett and Mason walking from opposite sides of the forest.

“I hate when you get inside my head!” Jett says while rubbing his head.

“Ugh…Me too,” Mason says while rubbing his temples with his index fingers.

“What did you want me to do? Just yell and let everyone know we are here?!”

“So, I understand you don’t like Brody in your heads, but I’m ready to go find Luke. What’s the plan? I don‘t want to waste a single minute,” I say while standing up and looking around, trying to find a major highway or something. I know absolutely nothing about this place.

No one answers me. They start talking to one another about things I don’t understand. I start biting my nails and anxiously tap my foot. I’m growing more impatient by the second. I wish I knew a way out of here and how to get to Luke, because I would have already been on my way.

“We have to walk east. The best way is on foot and out of the public eye. If anyone sees us, it won’t be good.
Especially
with a mortal. They will immediately know who you are and will notify Lana and her parents. We have to remain unseen,” Brody says.

Did he just say walk? I don’t have time to walk. Don’t they have a way to transport us to where we need to be? They are magical people for goodness sake!

“Walk?” I start rubbing the back of my head. “I don’t have time to walk. Can’t you guys do better? You have magic!”

Brody shakes his head. “We can be tracked by magic. The less magic, the better. Also, it’s not that far. Walking will be fine.”

After figuring out which way is East, with the phrase I learned in grade school,
Never Eat Soggy Waffles
, each word standing for a direction, I start walking East. I think.