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16 ~ Tons of Questions

"Where are we going?" I asked. She put the car in reverse and backed out of the driveway.

"The airport, duh. I'm not driving all the way to Louisiana," Sadie laughed.

"Oh, right," I blushed in embarrassment. "Wait, can I ask some questions?"

"Yeah. I knew you were gonna have some."

I hesitated. "How did you do the thing, like, where you talk to me in my head?"

"Well, first thing's first, your mom isn't a psychopath or sociopath or whatever you want to call it. Her reasoning for giving me away was justified, and when I grew old enough to understand, I forgave her. I can talk to you in your head because that's just a thing I can do, but only with direct family. I can only do it to girls. Whenever mom would tell me no, or said I couldn't have anything, I'd somehow tell her brain, 'yes, you're going to give it to her or let her do what she's asking'. Mom realized it wasn't her own thoughts after the first few times I did it, and it understandably freaked her out. She asked me about this one day to make sure it wasn't something actually wrong with her brain, and I said 'yes, that's me telling you that', and she told me to stop, so I told her no. It soon became a bigger problem, and she knew it would only get worse as time went on, and she talked to Caleb and asked if I had ever done the thing to him, and he said no, and she slowly realized that she was the only one I was communicating with. She had to adopt me out."

"Wow. How does it work?"

"I don't know. I don't know when it started either. I can't remember a time where I wasn't able to do it. I can kinda read thoughts too, but luckily, it's only when I want to, which is good."

I paused, thinking of what else I wanted to ask. "What was your childhood like after you were no longer in our family?"

"I got lucky, unlike most foster kids. The first family I was with adopted me. I was a sweet kid, but I quickly figured out that the mind thing only worked with mom, especially as I started school. Oh, and the weird thing is, the minute you were born, I felt it. I just knew that there was another kid. As you and I grew older, I figured out that I could read your thoughts, but when I came to understand that this was intrusive, I stopped. And the second Caleb died, even though the thing doesn't work with guys, I felt it. A pang in my chest. I didn't know what it was, I just knew he was gone. Hit me like a truck. He was the best older brother I could've had. Yesterday, I just had this feeling that I needed to save you. From what, I don't know. I just knew that I had to get you out of that house and to Paige."

"Why?"

"Not quite sure, but the dream confirmed it."

I paused again. "How do you know about it?"

"I was there."

"I didn't see you, though.

"I was omniscient. I knew the thoughts going through your mind, Annie's, and Caleb's. I was the nothingness you were in. Also, the dress was the color of red and green combined. Not brown, like when you mix markers together on paper, it's a color humans typically can't see."

"How come I could see it?"

"I'm not quite sure."

We were quiet until we got to the airport. She turned the car into the place she rented it from and we got our things out of the trunk and walked inside. I followed her to one of the self-kiosks. She pulled out her phone and entered her email and flight number in, confirmed the tickets, and printed them. She handed me mine, and I put it in my backpack. We headed to security.

"Hi," Sadie said to the officer checking boarding passes. She handed her her driver's license.

"Okay, umm, you're only sixteen?" The officer asked.

"Yes, ma'am," she said.

"Alright. If your airline has a form for minors flying without an adult, did your parent or guardian fill it out?"

"Yes, ma'am. And for her, too," she said, gesturing to me. "We're sisters."

"Okay. Can I see your pass, please?" The officer asked me.

"Sure." I handed her mine. She went over it with the light and handed our passes back to us. We took off our backpacks and Sadie removed her shoes. Because I'm younger than twelve, I'm allowed to keep my shoes on and go through the smaller metal detector. We both went through the metal detectors and got our stuff on the other side, then headed to our gate. We got there just as our flight was beginning to board. When our passenger numbers were called, we got on the plane and found seats. I took the window and Sadie took the middle. After boarding had finished, nobody had sat next to us, so Sadie moved over to the aisle seat so we'd have more room. On the flight, Sadie slept and I stared out the window and played on my phone. She woke up when we had landed.

We got our bags from baggage claim and Sadie called an Uber to Paige's house.

"How did you know about the box under Annie's bed?" I asked my sister. I had been thinking about that on the flight.

"You know how you had the dream where you interacted with her and Caleb?" She asked. I nodded. "Well, after you woke up, and I woke up at the same time since I was there, then I went back to sleep and Annie met me in the place again. Caleb wasn't there, luckily. She explained to me that when I came to get you—which she had told me to do the night before—I had to have you get the box from under the bed. She made an image of it out of the air so I would know exactly what it looked like."

"Wait, she came to you the night before last night? But she was still alive then," I questioned, puzzled.

"Really? I didn't know that," she frowned. "She shouldn't have been able to communicate with me."

"Maybe she had powers like you?" I wondered.

"Maybe. But she never used them before I left, or even before the night before when she first talked to me."

"That's crazy."

We took a little break from talking and looked around outside the windows. Paige didn't live too far from the airport, so we arrived at her house fairly quickly. We got our bags out of the car and stood on her front porch as the Uber left.

"Here goes nothing," Sadie said.

She knocked on the door.

Paige answered.