Five

Cassie!
How come you didn’t meet me at break? And where were you at lunch? I haven’t seen you all day! Geez, are you avoiding me just cuz of your stupid shoes? Jase told me they were ugly anyway, so I traded with Kerry. You could have had them back at break, if you’d just met me. Stop being a dork. Don’t you want to get your yearbook signed? Meet me here after 5th period and I’ll give it to you. At least you’ll have one period to get it signed then. Look, I’m sorry I made you mad…
See you
Sadie

All I could do was stare at the note. Sadie wrote this note today, I thought. How had it gotten in my pocket? She wrote this after she stole my shoes, after I didn’t show up for homeroom, break, lunch. Sadie was out there, where I should be, and I was gone, really gone from the world I knew. I think to this point the rational part of my mind was still clinging to the belief that this was some kind of bizarre dream, or maybe that my childhood fantasies had come true and I had been whisked off to Narnia, but would soon be returned to the normal world and no one would be the wiser. Except for me of course, I thought. And Michael. We’d have our secret adventure to remember always, and maybe next year we’d get a letter from Hogwarts and be invited to be the first American exchange students and—I shook my head to stop this panicked train of thought from continuing any further.
Now, holding Sadie’s note in hand, the rational and even the semi-rational parts of my brain were having to give up and admit that something beyond explanation was happening here. I was so shocked I couldn’t even feel mad at Sadie for calling my shoes stupid and then giving them to stupid Kerry. Though she did apologize, which was rare, for Sadie. She must really be worried about me, I mused. I almost laughed aloud at the thought. I should be worried about me, I thought, a little giddy and probably going a little crazy now. Sadie wants me to meet her after 5th period, and I am stuck in an alternate universe and obviously losing my mind.
“Cass?” Michael had suddenly appeared at my side. I crammed the note back into my pocket. “Cass are you okay?”
“Yeah I’m all right.” I looked up at him. He looked a little worried, but he seemed like he was about to grin – just cheese at me like this was the happiest day of his life. What the crap? I thought, then I remembered what Michael had said about the angel “She spoke to me, showed me this place. She said we’d find Eden.” We’d find Eden.
“Michael, what the crap’s going on!?” I whispered fiercely. I was still not quite over being panicky. “You knew about this, you knew all this was going to happen! What the crap, Michael?!” What had started as a whisper ended as nearly a shout.
“No, Cass, no, hang on!” Michael said, his eyes pleading with me to calm down. The unsightly demons were beginning to murmur concernedly and looked as if they might start drifting over towards us. I waved slightly and gave them a wan smile. They turned away somewhat reluctantly.
“Michael, explain this!” I whispered again.
“Ok, Cass, I will, I will, just calm down a little,” Michael said, still looking eerily like a kid on Christmas morning, as if it was all he could do to contain his excitement. “Ok, but you gotta hear me out. Just let me explain, and then we’ll talk ok?” I guess he could tell I was on the verge of interrupting him with another exclamation of “What the crap, Michael?” I nodded, it was fair.
“Ok,” He paused for a moment. “It’s hard to know where to start. Ok, you wanted to know—you wanted to know what happened that day when Eden disappeared, and this is all to do with that day, so I guess I’ll start there.
“You know how I was supposed to get Eden from daycare right? Well, I did and we were just walking home, but you know how Eden is—she wanted to play a game. She wanted to play hide and seek, and she kept telling me to close my eyes. I told her we’d play when we got home, but not now cuz we were walking and all that. But she just kept saying she wanted to play hide and seek, really insisting. Finally I … well, I yelled at her. I just said Eden, No! But I think it scared her. She let go of my hand and ran, just ran right around the corner. I shouted at her to stop, and started to run after her, but I tripped. Damn Cassie, you have no idea how many times I have cursed myself for that. I just tripped and I lost my sister. So stupid. By the time I got up and got around the corner, she was gone. I thought she was hiding from me, playing the game she had wanted to play. I wasn’t even smart enough to look around for a car, to see who had taken her. Just hang on Cassie, let me explain.” I had just opened my mouth to interrupt, tell him it wasn’t his fault, but I closed it when I heard the urgency in his voice.
“But then a couple weeks ago I started having these dreams. I saw the mountain in them, and Eden was always at the top. And she kept shouting down to me ‘Come get me, Michael, come get me.’ I thought I was going to go insane, hearing her say that every night, and waking up every morning knowing I couldn’t do anything. But then… last night… I … the dream, it changed. Instead of Eden, I saw an angel… the one I told you about. And she … Cass, she told me I had to bring you and we had to go to the top of the mountain, and we’d find Eden. She kept telling me over and over, ‘Get Cassie.’ And I almost… I almost didn’t. Because I was afraid of you, and I was afraid of what you’d say. But then you followed me. Cass,” He grabbed my arms then and stared intensely into my eyes. “Cass, you are the greatest friend. I don’t know what would have happened if you hadn’t come, maybe none of this would have happened. But we’re here now, and now we can find Eden.” He grinned at me.
I was pretty stunned, after that. Michael had just told me probably the most insane thing I had ever heard in my life. But here I was in a cave surrounded by demons—how could I doubt the existence, or the messages, of angels? But there was one thing that made even less sense than everything else.
“But… but why me? Why did you need me to come? What does any of this have to do with me?”
Michael looked crestfallen, like all that manic energy had just been crushed right out of him. “I—I’m sorry Cassie. I know, I know this doesn’t have anything to do with you. She’s my sister. I should be the one to find her. I just... I don’t know. The angel told me you had to come. I’m sorry I dragged you into this.”
“Michael, that’s not what I meant. Geez, sometimes you really are an idiot. I didn’t say I didn’t want to help you find Eden- wasn’t I there when we did all the searches? I want to find her as bad as you do. I love Eden too. I just… wondered, why she…it...the angel told you I had to come. I’m just trying to make some sense of this, ok? Geez.”
“Oh. Sorry.” Neither of us looked at the other then, we just sort of sat in silence for a little while, until the unsightlies drifted their way ethereally toward us. They held out two packs toward us.
“You must begin your journey, now.”