Insight (Web of Hearts and Souls #1)(9)

“Look, those people I help are normal. They don’t look any different than we do,” I argued, refusing to play a part in the reality he was painting for me.

I couldn’t breathe.

“We are all people, we all look normal. These dimensions are only different because of the choices made as a whole,” my father assured, engaging my blank stare.

“I don’t get it…why are you telling me this now? What is the deal?” I said, failing to find reason in his words. Trying to hear him over my racing heart.

Dad glanced at Mom, then back to me.

“It is time to go home,” he said quietly.

“This is home. This town is perfect, safe, and beautiful,” I argued, looking back and forth between them. Home?

“And my dimension would make this world humble in its beauty,” he said in a whisper, his eyes gazing in deep reflection.

“Then why are we here? Why have you had us live a lie? Why have you not told me that I’m not crazy for all these things that I can do?” I almost yelled, standing and beginning to pace the patio.

Dad shifted in his seat and looked at Mom. She smiled, encouraging him to go on. My father then stood and put his hands on my shoulders, forcing me to look at him. His hazel eyes had shifted to a light green, which matched the calm I felt coming from him now. How could he be calm? He was now just as insane as I was.

He smiled faintly and said, “My dimension, Chara, has a trait: we all leave to find our soul mates. We are driven by a feeling deep inside.”

Oh dear God, the only thing I could think about when he said that was my blue-eyed boy. Every part of me seemed to become all too aware at once. What if I could find him? What if he was real? A wave of heat washed over me—my body was humming.

My father grinned as he let his hands fall from my shoulders.

“I left at twenty to find your mother. When she decided that she would rather live in my dimension, I went to find another traveler to help me lead her home, but the storms inside the string had somehow closed my passage. I found other passages over time, but by then you were born, and I thought it would be safer to stay here for now.”

I knew this man. He was holding something back. Like details. “Storms,” I repeated, still not understanding what a “string” was.

“Yes, not like rain and thunder, though. You see, the string is made of energy; it flows, sometimes too aggressively. We always lead a new person home with the help of a seasoned traveler. If our dimension is not in your blood, all you will see is darkness. It can be very frightening,” my father said, glancing back at mother, trying to warn her of what she would have to face.

Like that was the most shocking revelation of the night.

“So, is the storm over now?” I asked, still not understanding his vague explanation.

He looked back at me slowly. “Not really. We just think it’s time,” he said as I felt dread come over him.

Yep, he was hiding something from me. “If you couldn’t get Mom there, then how are you going to get us all there now?”

“I went to meet a friend of mine, Ashten, last night. He is on his way home to get his family. They will help us all get there.”

Shifting my eyes between my mother and father, I wondered if my nightmare had triggered this sudden urge for him to be honest with me. Well, halfway honest with me.

“So what’s your plan? For us to just vanish? I have friends here. I have a life here. We all do,” I argued.

“Willow, just trust me,” my father said, desperate for me to be more agreeable.

“What are you not telling me? You didn’t just wake up this morning and say, ‘Gee, I think I’m going to tell Willow that we’re from another dimension, ha ha, she will love that,’ did you?”

My mother stood and put herself between my father and me.

“Honestly, we have been thinking about it for a while. Libby is already six. We want her to grow up there,” Mom said, trying to defend my father.

“Why didn’t you want me to grow up there?” I asked sarcastically.

I had never been jealous of my baby sister. I could just feel that they weren’t telling me everything, and honestly, it had to be big. They are not afraid of telling me I’m from another dimension, so what could be so bad in comparison? Evil. I kept seeing that dark nightmare in my mind’s eye. The only way I’d endured those nightmares was by telling myself that a place like that didn’t exist. They just ripped my life jacket off of me. I felt vulnerable, terrified.

“It was just different then,” my father said.

“Sure.” I breathed, pointing out how unbelievable that response was.

“Listen, bad people are everywhere. We were told that someone very dark was in the string. They—they, we just didn’t want to travel through there with you being so young,” my father said in a frustrated tone as a sea of deep emotions swarmed through him.

“So, the bad guy is gone now…?” I said shortly.

Please, Dad, tell me the evil is gone now.

“Not exactly, but Ashten has very strong boys. They will make sure we all weather the storms and make it home safely,” my father replied weakly.

My mother wrapped her arm around my shoulder. “Willow, tomorrow we are going to tie up some loose ends, then the next day we are going to go home where we belong,” she said with a sense of finality.