Before the Dawn by Kristal Lim Read Free Book Online Page B

remember what had happened to her in that ballroom. "There
are chairs out back," she said, "below my old tree house. We could
talk there, I guess."
    "Okay." He nodded. "Okay. Let's do that."
    "It's this way." She joined him outside and
gestured for him to follow her around the house to the backyard. It
would have been quicker if they had just gone through the kitchen,
but her dad was still there and she didn't want him to see Trevor
and how weird he was acting. When they got to the chairs, she sat
on one, relieved that she didn't have to walk on her aching feet
anymore, and pointed to the other chair across from her so he would
sit there. She wanted some distance between them because she
suddenly had no idea what he might do at any second. "So, you
wanted to talk," she prompted once they were both settled into
their chairs.
    He let out a loud breath and buried his face
in his hands for a moment. Then he straightened up and looked at
Aline. "I can't remember things from last night clearly," he
finally confessed.
    Those words sent a little chill through her.
"What do you mean?"
    "I—I'm confused about whatever happened or
didn't happen last night." His brow furrowed as he tried to make
sense out of his thoughts. "What I remember is going to work and
helping set up the big private room for your party. Then sometime
around eleven, I think, things sort of—get hazy. I remember running
around from table to table bringing in food, and guests started
arriving, though they didn't look like anyone I'd seen in school.
Then that balcony, standing there with you thinking I've never been
out on a balcony in the Ballroom before. I didn't even know we had
one. And then that thin guy with the black hair showed up and
dragged you away. I was going to go after you, but this other guy,
someone blond, stopped me. He said something." Trevor was silent
for several seconds as he tried to remember, but he huffed a bit in
frustration when the right memory didn't come to him. "Then I
thought I saw you, but you were walking towards the woods, and I
thought that was really strange, so I ran after you. And I must
have lost you or knocked myself out or something, because the next
thing I knew, I was waking up just as the sun was rising and I was
in the middle of the woods behind the Ballroom." He then stared
right into her eyes. "I know the whole thing doesn't make much
sense. I can't even be sure if it really happened or not. But
that’s what happened to me." It looked like he was pleading with
her to come up with an explanation that would clear up the
confusion he was feeling.
    She said nothing for a long time. Then she
stood up, which sent a sharp bolt of pain from her feet to the rest
of her body. But she couldn't afford to pay attention to it now.
"Wait here, okay? I wanna show you something." He nodded, and Aline
walked as quickly as she could to the back door that led to the
kitchen. "Trevor's in the backyard and I'll talk to you about it
later!" she told her startled dad in a rush as she limped past him
and headed upstairs for her room. She took out the silver leaf from
where she had hidden it and went back out to where Trevor was
seated.
    "Here." She held it out to him like an
offering and, curiosity lighting up his eyes, he took it and
studied it carefully.
    "What is it?" he asked, so she told him about
the dream she'd had and how she'd woken up and found that a leaf
from a grove of silver trees that shouldn't exist had somehow
hitched a ride with her back to the real world.
    He just looked at her in silence for a few
minutes. "You’re not joking." He wasn’t asking her a question.
    "Right now, I really, really wish I was." Her
tone was earnest. "But I’ve got strange dreams, a silver leaf that
shouldn’t be here, no clear memory of last night, and injured feet.
I don’t see anything that would make a good joke out of these
things." Then she asked him the question that she was actually
scared to hear him answer. "Do you believe me?"
    He