The Gate

25. Begin Again

Lena Matthews

"Is she going to say anything?" Mrs. Pearce asked, irritation starting to creep into her usual diplomatic tone.

"Give her time," said Jessica. "She has a lot to process."

"I can get Makaya. Maybe she can help." Mrs. Pearce suggested.

"Makaya is on probation. She's not supposed to be doing things like that. I can't believe she was even scheduled to be watching her." Jessica pointed out.

"She's the only one in this town I trust," said Mrs. Pearce.

"You have a husband and daughter," said Jessica.

"Your point?" Mrs. Pearce asked.

"You know what? I don't care who you trust." Jessica snapped. "You need to be putting the town first, not your own self interest."

"I have done more for this town than you know," said Mrs. Pearce.

"Stop." My voice sounded weird and unnatural. If their goal was to annoy me into talking, it worked.

We were in the main office where I had had the checkup. I was even lying on the same couch, where I had been all night. When I reached my hand between the cushions, I could feel the cold metal of the fire poker that I had stashed there on my first day in Atalka. I wasn't sure whether to laugh at the fact that no one had found it, or to break down completely at the reminder that everything used to be so simple.

"Ivy? How do you feel?" Jessica asked.

"Where's Flora?" I asked. My gaze was focused on the wall in front of me, and I didn't trust myself to look anywhere else.

"We're going to focus on that later," said Jessica. "For right now, Mrs. Pearce has some questions for you."

I nodded.

"Okay." said Mrs. Pearce, clearing her throat. "How old are you?" she asked.

"Sixteen?" I answered. That didn't seem like a very important question, but I wasn't in the right mindset to handle anything else.

"Any birthmarks?" Mrs. Pearce asked. I shook my head again. "Near death experiences?"

"I..." I wasn't sure how to explain what had happened. "I think I got slammed really hard into a tree by a dryad." I glanced down at my right hand slowly, and turned it so that my palm faced up. My Forbidden brand was now visible to everyone. "Did I die?" I asked hollowly.

"Think of it like a second chance," said Jessica. "We're going to give you a little bit more time, but your family's worried."

"My family?" A chill clenched my heart. "They... I can't." I muttered incoherently. "I can't."

"It's okay," said Jessica sympathetically. She couldn't come close to understanding that my own house was about to become my worst nightmare. I stared at the Forbidden brand on my wrist, absolutely terrified.

"How did this happen?" I asked. I was mostly talking to myself, but Jessica took the question literally.

"When someone is killed by one of the Forbidden, there's always the chance that they could come back as the thing that killed them. We're not sure why she did it, but Flora Delaney took your life. Since she was a dryad, we think that you've become a dryad too." She explained.

I understood exactly how all of that worked, but I never expected to experience any of it firsthand. I had expected to feel different now that I was no longer human, but I didn't. Everything was exactly the same. I still needed my glasses on top of everything, which was the biggest ripoff of this whole situation.