Stepping into the Sky: Jump When Ready, Book 3 (15 page)

Nikki had just reached the top of the stairs when Henry
opened his door. “Hang on,” he said. “Just woke up.” He caught up with her a
moment later. “Sleep okay?”

“Like the dead.”

Henry laughed. “Nice. I didn’t hear anyone else get up.
Did you?”

“You could’ve dropped a hippo through the roof and I
would have slept through it.” Part of Nikki wondered if the house would be
quiet again, like it had been last time. Her spirits rose when they reached the
bottom of the stairs and laughter sounded from the back deck.

“What are you smiling about?” Henry said.

Nikki hadn’t realized. “Nothing.”

“Right, nothing,” Henry said, but he left it at that as
Nikki’s face grew warm and her smile continued to spread across her face. Yes,
she’d missed her people. Not that she’d ever admit it.

“Do you smell fire?”

Henry sniffed. “Yep. I definitely smell something
burning.”

“Food, right?”

“Yeah,” Henry said. “Which pretty much rules out Naomi.”

The laughter grew louder as they crossed through the
kitchen. Nikki opened the back door and waved smoke away as they stepped
outside. Simon stood over a grill while Jamie and Naomi watched him from a
distance, their arms crossed over their chests, their chins tucked and brows
furrowed.

“Hey, guys,” Henry said. “How’s it going?”

Simon didn’t look up from the grill, where he flipped
flaming lumps of meat. “Making steaks,” he said.

Nikki’s eyes met Naomi’s. Naomi shrugged and offered a
smile.

“English style, evidently,” Nikki said.

“For your information, I’m searing the outside. I just
thought Naomi should take a break from feeding everyone. You know how it’s been
lately. We hardly ever go to the food court anymore.”

Naomi’s face reddened but she watched Simon indulgently.
“I’m not sure you’re supposed to sear them quite that much.”

Nikki laughed but then did a double-take. There was no
doubt about it. Naomi was taller now, still thin as always but with a slight
flare to her hips and filling out elsewhere too. She didn’t have any more time
to think about it before Jamie jumped back from a blast of fire caught by the
wind.

“Dude, I think you passed the searing part,” he said.
“Just saying.”

“It’s like a freaking volcano,” Nikki said.

“Steak Vesuvius?” Henry said.

Simon wiped his brow. “I’ve got this. Actually, I don’t.
Somebody help.”

Naomi pointed at the grill. “You could just sort of move
them off to the side.”

“What do you mean?” Simon said.

“Away from the fire?” Naomi said.

Simon wiped his brow again and batted the steaks away
from the center of the grill. He fanned them with his spatula. “There we go.
Good idea, Naomi.”

“It was just a little hot there,” she said. “You’re good
now.”

“What’s up with the grill?” Nikki said. “I mean, other
than Simon demonstrating his culinary skills. Bravo, Simon, by the way.”

“That one’s for you.” Simon pointed at the most charred
lump.

Nikki laughed. “Thank you. It looks, um, cooked.”

“It looks like it got hit with a flame-thrower,” Jamie
said. When Simon shot him a look, he shrugged. “I’m sure it’s juicy on the
inside. Or like completely petrified. Somewhere between the two.”

“We figured we could cook out here and keep an eye on
Becky at the same time,” Naomi said.

Nikki glanced across the yard to see Becky galloping
within her enclosure. She turned to Jamie. “How’s that going, by the way? Did
Becky bite you yet?”

“Not yet,” Jamie said. “Still chases me every chance she
gets, though.”

“Must be love.”

Jamie shrugged. “Chicks dig me. What can I say?”

“That’s our only evidence so far, but follow your heart,”
Nikki said. “Works for  me.”

“Becky let me ride her yesterday,” Naomi said. “She
didn’t mind the saddle at all.”

“That’s really cool,” Henry said. “Jamie’s turn next,
right?”

“Simon, hit him with the spatula,” Jamie said.

Naomi laughed. “I think that’s a great idea, Henry. You
know how much Becky loves him.” She looked off across the yard and called out,
“Right, girl?”

Becky looked up and snorted, then trotted off again.

“Debatable,” Nikki said.

“That horse is demented,” Jamie said.

“When did you guys get back?” Naomi said. “We missed
you.”

“No kidding.” Simon shot a look at Nikki. “I mean, sort
of. Anyway, did you two crack the case?”

Nikki and Henry exchanged glances.

“Sometime yesterday,” Henry said. “And not exactly.”

“As in no,” Nikki said. “I’m not entirely sure we didn’t
make things worse.”

Nikki looked around at her friends as they waited for her
to continue. It wasn’t the first time, by far, that she’d thought of them as
being her family these days. No matter what they did together, she found
comfort in it—whether it was zoning out watching a movie, playing together in
the game room or falling back into their default mode of hitting the food
court. But as she stood there now looking into their eyes, a strange feeling
came over her. For some reason, she couldn’t help feel a sense of nostalgia.
She knew it made no sense. She wasn’t looking back. This wasn’t a memory. At
the same time, she knew her eyes would go misty if she didn’t control herself.
Something told her she’d soon be missing these people around her. How she knew
it, Nikki couldn’t say. All the same, she knew it to be true.

“So, what happened?” Jamie said.

Jamie’s words brought her back and Nikki shook her head
to make the feeling go away. This wasn’t the time, she told herself. Maybe soon
but not yet.

Then, she and Henry told them about everything they’d
experienced without holding back. Henry described how he’d relived the morning
when he’d drowned and how he’d seen his brother and sister again. Nikki hadn’t
pressed him for details before, when he’d told Martha and Lysrus. She’d known
that whatever had happened must have been terrible. Now, she didn’t bother
fighting back tears as Henry told them how he’d almost fallen into the trap,
how much he’d longed to stay in that imaginary realm and how he’d been
convinced that he’d only imagined everyone he’d come to know here.

It wasn’t easy, but Nikki found the strength to tell them
about the visions she’d experienced that morning in the garden. About seeing
her parents and sister and thinking she’d joined them again. In telling them,
Nikki relived those moments again herself, not for the first time wondering how
the demons had been able to both know about, and exploit, one of her innermost
wishes.

Jamie, Naomi and Simon stared wide-eyed, realizing how
close they’d come to never seeing either one of them again. Eventually, Nikki
and Henry reached the end of the story, telling them how Rose had finally
accepted the truth only to become trapped by her own guilt again.

“That was the last time we saw her,” Henry said. “It may
be only a matter of time before they wrap the dream around her again. Or a
different dream. We just don’t know.”

“But she’s still in her old house?” Naomi said.

“Exactly,” Jamie said. “Part of her must know that,
right?” He turned to Henry. “You ghosted out before. You still knew where you
were, didn’t you?”

Henry considered, his gaze far off for a moment. Nikki
knew he must have been recalling that painful time after Bethany had been
abducted. He’d kept haunting his old home hoping somehow to make his presence
known. Eventually, he’d become delirious from lack of food and sleep. It had
taken the efforts of Curtis, Naomi and Simon to bring him back again.

“Yeah, but I was nowhere near as bad off as Rose,” Henry
said. “I’d just started to ghost out when you guys found me.”

Simon hunched forward, resting his forearms on the table.
“But we
did
find you, mate. What’s to keep you two from finding Rose?”

Nikki shook her head. “It’s not just about us finding
her. It’s a matter of getting through to her. We tried everything we could
think of.”

“It’s just so sad,” Naomi said. “The whole thing was
terrible but it was just an accident. She didn’t mean to kill them.”

“No, they meant to kill her,” Nikki said.

Naomi gasped and her eyes went wide.

“I’m sorry,” Nikki said, reacting instinctively. Naomi
had been a little girl for so long that it had become a habit, over time, to
protect her from ugly truths.

Naomi shook her head. “It’s okay.”

“Besides, it was a long time ago,” Henry said, “Those
people are long gone.”

“Does Rose know about that?” Naomi said. “I mean, that
Joseph and Linda meant to kill her?”

Henry and Nikki exchanged glances.

“No,” Henry said. “It just seemed too…”

Nikki understood why he let his words trail off. Of
course, it would be painful for Rose to learn that the boy she’d once loved had
conspired with the girl who’d been her best friend. Incredibly painful. That
kind of emotional trauma could tear someone apart. But what if that person was
already torn apart?

“Maybe we should have told her,” Henry said. “I don’t
know. Either way, it wasn’t like we had much time. As soon as she accepted the
reality of her situation, her entire dream world started coming apart.”

“And it doesn’t seem likely she’d listen to anything we
tried telling her now,” Nikki said. “Not in her present state.”

This time, Jamie, Naomi and Simon exchanged glances.
Clearly, they were all thinking the same thing. “Okay, what’s the deal, you guys?”
Nikki said.

“You don’t tell her,” Jamie said. “You show her.”

“Exactly,” Simon said.

Maybe Nikki was still tired but she wasn’t quite catching
on. “How?”

“You jump her in time,” Naomi said. “Like you did with
Ian, but just backwards instead of forward.”

“But we didn’t jump Ian forward,” Nikki said. “We jumped
to a point in his future.”

“Those events hadn’t happened for Ian yet,” Henry said.
“We could see them but he couldn’t experience them until they actually took
place.”

“Plus, he was still living in the physical realm,” Nikki
said.

“I know,” Naomi said. “But Rose never fully left the
physical realm. Part of her has always remained there. And those events are
part of her past, so they’ve already happened. You wouldn’t have to wait,
right? Maybe you could get her to see things she hadn’t before.”

Nikki stared at Naomi for a few seconds, speechless. She
looked to Henry, who wore a similarly stunned expression. When they’d learned
that their old friend Curtis— now living as Ian—was about to die again, Nikki
had found within herself a new ability beyond just being able to read the minds
of the living. She’d discovered she could jump through Ian’s consciousness
forward in time and see his future. She’d also brought Henry and Jamie along to
witness events on Ian’s timeline that hadn’t yet transpired. At the time, there
had been no need to jump back into Ian’s past but it made sense that she could
take Henry back on Rose’s timeline the same way. But could she take Rose as
well? Nikki wasn’t sure but it seemed possible. While Rose hadn’t directly
experienced all of what had happened in her past, Naomi was right. All of it
had still taken place. And if Nikki could jump Henry back, why not Rose along
with him? After all, that life for Rose had already ended and she now stood
outside of it.

Henry broke the silence, using the same words running
through Nikki’s mind. “That’s brilliant.”

“It really is,” Nikki said.

Jamie gestured at Naomi. “She just said it first. All
three of us were thinking it.”

Nikki knew it to be true but wasn’t about to admit that
to Jamie. “Whatever, Spikehead. Nice job, Naomi.”

Simon’s face flushed. “Hey! I was also—”

“Destroying perfectly good food,” Nikki said. She shot
Henry a look and he kept a straight face for about three seconds before he
burst out laughing.

“Who cares who thought of it?” Henry said.

“I do,” Jamie said.

“Me too,” Simon said.

Nikki’s mind flashed back to that unspoken message in
Martha’s eyes. Maybe she hadn’t been sure but had wondered if their group would
come up with something as they always seemed to do when faced with a dilemma. Maybe
Martha had been hesitant to suggest something contradicting Lysrus’s authority.
After all, Lysrus had decided they’d done enough. Either way, it didn’t matter.
Nikki knew that she and Henry had to try. She couldn’t stand the idea of Rose
being left to haunt her old house. She had no doubt Henry felt exactly the same
way.

Nikki looked at Naomi, Jamie, then Simon. “You guys are
the best.”

“Seriously love you guys too,” Jamie said. “But I think
the steaks are on fire again.”

Hopes, Dreams,
Memories and Imaginings

Nikki and Henry had
decided not to approach Lysrus about their decision. Not that they could
without going to Martha first but they’d decided to leave her out of it too. Would
Martha somehow know? Nikki supposed it quite possible she would. Typically,
Martha had a way of knowing at least their emotional state if not their actual
comings and goings. Either way, both she and Henry had discussed it after
hanging out with the others and decided they weren’t going to ask for
permission.

Nikki held Henry’s hand as they stood on the veranda in
front of Halfway House. The stars above glimmered and they looked up together
at this astounding night sky that Nikki had never entirely gotten used to. What
their world was made of, Nikki couldn’t be entirely sure. A mix of hopes,
dreams, memories and imaginings, she supposed. That part, as strange as it had
once seemed, she’d gotten used to. And she also supposed their world was real,
in some way. As real as any, she imagined, since all worlds are experienced
through the eyes of the person seeing it. But this sky above, Nikki knew stood
outside all worlds, real and imagined. These were the actual heavens, viewed
from a place where no light interfered with the stars—millions, it seemed—spread
across the sky.

“It’s just a house, right?” Nikki said.

Henry met her eyes and offered a smile. “It’s just a
house this time.”

Which was exactly what Nikki needed to hear. She couldn’t
put that other realm out of her mind. She hadn’t spent a night without dreaming
of her parents and sister urging her to join them again. They’d seemed so real.
As real as the stars above.

She squeezed Henry’s hand. “And it’s not like you haven’t
ghosted out yourself. Right, River Rat?”

“Thanks for reminding me again, Road Kill.”

Nikki laughed. “That’s why I’m here.”

“Glad you are,” Henry said.

In that moment, Nikki recalled his words from when they
hadn’t been sure what was about to happen.
There’s something you should
know. Something I probably should have told you before.
But this definitely
wasn’t the time to ask what he’d meant to say.

“Ready for this?” Nikki said.

Henry inhaled audibly. “Sure, let’s see what happens.”

Nikki closed her eyes and waited, envisioning the same
house she and Henry had been to within Rose’s dream—her only image of it being
that sunny morning from long ago that had kept Rose ensnared within her
imagination. She felt the energy shift around her but no light touched her
eyelids and part of her wondered if they might still be standing outside
Halfway House.

Henry spoke first, his voice little more than a whisper.
“This has to be it.”

Nikki allowed herself to open her eyes, only now
realizing how much her heartbeat had increased. She looked around, seeing very
little in the dim light surrounding them. She waited for her eyes to adjust and
realized they were in the same living room where Rose had showed them her
record collection. For just a moment, Nikki thought about the Beatles album
Rose had loaned to Henry, thinking they’d forgotten to return it. Then she remembered
that it had never really happened. That small thing reminded her how much at
times she too had been sucked into the dream. Now, though, moonlight shined
against window panes, casting its glow across the room enough that Nikki could
make out the sofas, chairs and coffee table. They were sleek in design, where
before the furniture had been squat and solid with arching backs and rounded
armrests. A reflection caught her eye and Nikki realized light shone off a
flat-screen TV mounted to the wall above where she remembered the old stereo
cabinet.

Still, they stood in the same room. Nikki had no doubt
about that.

“Is she here?” Henry whispered.

At first, Nikki wondered how she was supposed to know.
But, of course, Henry was right. It was her job to know. She was a Reader,
after all. Whereas, Henry was the Speaker and Nikki suspected his ability might
well play a part in this too. Nikki closed her eyes again to see what kinds of
consciousness she might sense around them, part of her fearful at what she might
discover, her heartbeat kicking up a little more.

What she felt first was fear. Not her fear, though. She
sensed it coming from the floor above. At first, Nikki didn’t understand what
she was getting. All she saw in her mind was the image of a woman—the same one she
saw once before in a dream. She’d woken up from it that first morning after
they’d entered Rose’s dream. A name came back to her now—a name she’d almost
forgotten. Michelle. Nikki remembered her as the mother of two frightened
children who’d run to her in the night for comfort. Something scary had
happened, something  the children couldn’t comprehend and which was happening
again now. Nikki knew where she was sensing the fear now and why the only image
attached was  the face of that woman. She was reading her children—something
she’d never done before—and the only answer they had for fear was the face of
their mother.

Nikki looked up at the ceiling. She was about to tell
Henry when the little boy cried out in the dark.

“Mom? We can hear her in the hall!”

Then, the voice of the little girl. “Mom? We’re scared!”

Nikki listened, glancing over at Henry to see his eyes
raised to the ceiling as well. Only a few moments passed before Nikki heard
voices. A man saying something she couldn’t make out. Then, the woman, also a
murmur but Nikki guessed from her tone what she was telling her husband.
Something along the lines of, “It’s okay. Go back to sleep.  I’ll go to them.”

Feet hit the floor above and then travelled down the
hall. Henry looked over at her and nodded. Nikki understood and she lifted to
the air with him, passing through the ceiling. It had been a while since she’d
crossed over and even now Nikki continued to recalibrate to the idea that she
and Henry could pass through ceilings and doors in the physical realm where
Michelle and her family lived. Rose, of course, hadn’t lived in this realm
since long before Nikki and Henry had Transitioned. That reality jolted Nikki
in a way it hadn’t before. All those decades. Rose’s spirit had remained here
for almost seventy years while  her mind had been trapped in the dream.

Nikki’s breath caught in her throat as the woman she’d
dreamt about walked right through her, her eyes half-closed and puffy as she
tightened her robe. As always, the experience carried impressions Nikki
couldn’t ignore. This time it was Michelle’s concern, love, and protective fear
for her children.

Henry spoke softly. “She just crossed the hall.”

For a moment, Nikki wasn’t sure who he meant. Her mind
was locked on the children and their mother. Then she realized he meant Rose.
“Where?”

Henry pointed toward a closed door and they passed
through it to stand within a large bedroom. Not the master bedroom, but
considerably more spacious than the master bedroom in what Nikki would consider
a normal house. Whoever Michelle and her husband were, they must be affluent to
live in a house this immense. This room had been turned into a home office,
with a desk and computer, bookcases and an armchair in the corner near the
window.

Sensing something, Nikki spun around to see Rose facing
the wall at the opposite end of the room, hunched over, whispering.
“Grandmother? Where are you? There are people in the house!”

Rose turned and crossed the room again. They followed her
as she passed through the door and into the hall, where she started to cry.

The boy’s voice carried from the bedroom. “Mom, I can
hear her again.”

“Me too,” the little girl said. “She’s crying, Momma. Why
is she so sad?”

“It’s nothing,” Michelle whispered, trying to comfort her
children “It’s just the wind outside.”

“They hear her,” Henry said. “The kids, they can actually
hear her.”

In the past, Nikki had heard how sometimes children can
hear or see ghosts. Typically, no one believes them. After a while, they tell
themselves it couldn’t have been real—that it had been just their imagination
when they were too young to know better. Would this brother and sister someday
convince themselves that what they were experiencing now hadn’t happened? In
this case, Nikki hoped so. These memories would only carry with them fear.

Rose descended the stairs as Nikki and Henry again
followed. She stood in the front hall, where moonlight cast rectangles of light
against the floor from windows set into the front door. Rose raised her eyes to
the ceiling, tears streaming down her face. “Who are you? Why are you in my
house?” Her voice rose in volume and pitch. “
I want to see my grandmother! I
want to talk to Joseph!
”

Nikki took hold of Henry’s hand. “We need to do
something,” she said. “This has to stop.”

They walked toward Rose.

Rose suddenly stopped and turned. She looked directly at
them, her eyes wide as she stared. Rose said nothing but Nikki felt sure she
saw them.

Nikki took a deep breath and closed her eyes. At first,
she wasn’t sure what would happen, if she’d be able to get anything at all. But
then the images started to flow, along with associations and words, the impressions
strong, much stronger than Nikki had expected. She hadn’t been able to know but
it appeared they’d guessed correctly. Rose might no longer live in the physical
realm but part of her consciousness had never crossed over. Reading her wasn’t
much different than reading anyone else, except there was even less order to
Rose’s thoughts. While the thoughts of those still living in this realm usually
came at Nikki in a jumble, there was typically something loosely connecting
them. She’d be able to track the associative leaps taking place. Not so for
Rose. Feelings, names, words, images of faces and locations washed over Nikki’s
consciousness as she connected with Rose’s mind. Not surprisingly, the faces
she saw most were those of Olivia, Joseph and Linda. These had been the primary
people in Rose’s later years. But Nikki saw other faces too—teenagers and
children, men and women. The faces came at her too fast to process but they
must have been people Rose had known from school or her neighborhood. At one
point, she saw a man and woman together. The image was of them standing side by
side, gazing down as if at a child in bed. He was tall, with thinning blonde
hair combed back. She stood several inches shorter, with brown curly hair exactly
like Rose’s. Nikki looked at the man again and immediately knew who they were.
Rose had her father’s eyes.

Without opening her own eyes, Nikki reached out. She
waited, hoping, frightened, unsure what would happen. Then, seemingly against
all odds, Rose’s hand found hers. The connections startled Nikki. She’d been hoping
it would happen but part of her hadn’t thought it possible with Rose this far
gone. Could Rose somehow sense that she knew Nikki, that she could trust her?
There was just no way to know and there wasn’t time to think about it. She
needed to jump Rose back, if that was possible. Nikki dove deeper, searching
for the place in time they needed. She merged her mind with Rose’s, willing
herself to take Rose’s consciousness back in time. She waited, hoping, praying
it would work. Then she felt it, that now familiar sensation of wind blowing
past and the tunnel of swirling light she remembered from when she’d jumped
forward through Ian’s consciousness.

Nikki felt light against her eyelids—a steady light
different from that of the tunnel. She blinked against sunlight streaming
through a bedroom window. She checked to be sure and saw that Henry still stood
next to her. Rose no longer held her hand, though. Nikki hadn’t been sure what
would happen. She’d even wondered if Rose might end up standing next to her
viewing a projection of her own past containing herself. But apparently that
wasn’t how it worked when you jumped someone back on their own timeline. Rose now
sat across the room at an old-fashioned vanity, brushing her hair before the
mirror. Nikki had maintained her connection with Rose’s mind and knew that Rose
was fully rooted in this moment. She felt the order to Rose’s thoughts now,
logic connecting the flow of images and words within her mind.

After a few moments, Rose set her brush down. Nikki kept
her mind merged with Rose’s, reading her thoughts and emotions as Rose considered
her own reflection. Rose didn’t love what she saw but she wasn’t entirely
displeased either. Her hair had always been difficult to manage, her nose a
little bigger than she would have liked. The freckles she’d once despised
didn’t bother her as much these days. After all, Joseph said he loved her
freckles. Rose checked her watch and it was just after nine. Joseph was
supposed to call at ten. In the meantime, Rose suspected she’d find Olivia
outside sitting on the patio. She’d join her for some breakfast and wait for
Joseph to call.

Rose stood and walked right past Nikki and Henry. She got
shoes from her closet and sat on her bed to put them on. Nikki hadn’t been sure
if Rose might be able to see them somehow but Rose was enough immersed in her
past life that the “nonliving” didn’t register in this moment.

Nikki turned to Henry. “This is the same morning Lysrus
first showed us. Remember, we’re not in the dream this time. Maybe you can push
thoughts at her.” Even as she said it, Nikki couldn’t be sure if Henry’s skill
as a Speaker would work. But she’d been able to jump them to this place in
time, which suggested Henry might be able to influence Rose’s actions. Nikki
hoped that was the case. Otherwise, she wasn’t sure what more they could do.
“Tell her she should go to Joseph’s now. She should just get in the car and go
there.”

“Is that even possible?” Henry said. “We’d be changing
the past.”

Nikki shrugged. At this point, it was anybody’s guess 
but it was up to them to try. “I don’t think we’d be changing the past. It
already happened. Hopefully, Rose will just see part of it she didn’t before.”