Free Wide Awake - Academy of the Fallen Series by Daniele Lanzarotta Page B

therworld.  I always end up in the same place and…” her voice started cutting in and out and at that point I couldn’t make out anything she was saying.
     
    After a couple of hours I gave in and called Hunter’s cell phone.  He may have not answered because it was too late, but I assumed that most likely he was just trying to teach me a lesson… Until he just showed up in my room.
     
    Of course, I almost had a heart attack and I was mad that he kept sneaking up on me like that.  Sometimes it was even worse than Benjamin.  At least with Benjamin, I expected it.
     
    He sighed.  “Look, Benjamin keeps trying to get back here, so last chance.  You either talk to me and let me stay here or you are on your own.”
     
    “Umm.  Did you just suggest you stay in my room?”
     
    “Yes,” he said with a serious expression.
     
    I laughed.  “Ha!  For how long exactly?”
     
    “Until he is taken care of.”
     
    “You are gonna have to do better than that.”
     
    “Fiine!  You think you can handle it, you still have no idea what Benjamin really is, do you?”
     
    I shook my head.  It is not like I didn’t try to find out… but most of my research led to unreliable information… fiction stuff.
     
    “He is a demon… that is why he is stronger than most, that is why he is able to touch things when Carolyn can’t.”
     
    “Right!  You are just trying to scare me so that I will let you stay.  What do you care about what happens to me anyway?”
     
    I could tell he was tense and he sounded angry when he answered me.  “Let’s say it is because I got a conscience.”
     
    “You are only staying here if I can trust you, and the only way is for you to tell me what happened to you.”
     
    He mumbled something, sounded like he was cussing.
     
    “Fine!  A word about this to anyone and I wash my hands of anything that happens to you.  Understood?”
     
    “Sounds like the trust issue goes both ways.”
     
    “Yeah, well, guess I will have to take a chance.  But I need to know what you found out about your dad so that we can maybe figure out what Benjamin wants.”
     
    I agreed.  “You go first.”  I said.
     
    He shook his head in aggravation.
     
    “Do you remember Chase?
     
    My mind was blank until he mentioned middle school and summer camp.
     
    I nodded.
     
    Chase used to be Hunter’s best friend back in middle school.  One summer they went on a camping trip with Hunter’s brother, who I hadn’t heard much about after that summer.
     
    Story is… Hunter’s brother, Mark, took them on this summer camp.  One day he apparently had too much to drink, because later on he was charged with child neglect among other things.  Point is, he wasn’t keeping an eye on the boys who ended up going for a swim and Chase didn’t come out alive.  Apparently, neither did Hunter…. At least not right away.
     
     

 
    SEVENTEEN
     
     
     
    As I sat there listening to Hunter, I felt sorry that I basically forced him to tell me about what had happened. 
     
    Hunter tried to help Chase, but Chase was freaking out and ended up taking Hunter with him.  They both drowned.  Hunter said he didn’t know for how long he was out, but that it had been long enough.  He ended up in the Otherworld , trapped in the same place where Carolyn was, and he explained that was why he kept insisting that I help her and apparently I was the only one who could help her.
     
    “Trust me, Kayla.  Y ou don’t want to leave her there …   And she has already been there for too long.  It is just too risky.”
     
    “Risky, how?”
     
    “That place is like nothing that you can even begin to imagine.  Just try to picture being trapped in dark place, knowing that you will never see anyone you love ever again, because for one thing… you can’t cross over, and if you come back here… well, you are stuck in the same way, unless you can find someone like Carolyn found you.   But anyway, the risk is, that