Free Before the Dawn by Kristal Lim Page B

was about to warn Meran to stay far, far away
from Raven when Cassie and Sam finally arrived—and Sam was
crying.
    Before they could ask her what was wrong, she
told them the terrible news.
    "Guys, it's Gracelyn. We found her in her bed
this morning, and she wasn't breathing !"
    ***
     
     

Chapter 9
     
     
    It took Sam a while to tell them exactly what
had happened. Earlier, she had dropped by Gracelyn's house so they
could go to school together like they usually did, but Gracelyn
hadn't been waiting for her. So she and Gracelyn's mom had then
gone to her cousin's room to check up on her and they had found her
lying in bed. At first, they thought she was just sleeping, but
then Sam noticed her chest wasn't moving and she wasn't breathing
at all. Gracelyn’s mom had called the paramedics immediately while
Sam herself gave her cousin what CPR she knew. For several long
seconds, it seemed like they were going to lose her, but she
started breathing again when Sam redoubled her efforts at
resuscitating her, and the paramedics had then arrived just in time
to make sure that Gracelyn would continue breathing. After that,
Gracelyn had been taken to the hospital while Sam, though terribly
reluctant to do so, had been made to go to school.
    "My Aunt Joni said she'll call if there's any
news at all," Sam said, wiping away the tears that had never
stopped flowing while she was telling them her story. "Oh, God! Why
would something like this happen? She seemed totally fine the last
time I saw her."
    "And when was that, Sam?" Aline asked,
feeling sick to the pit of her stomach at this latest news.
    "It was," Sam frowned in thought, "well, it
was during your party. I didn't see her or hear from her at all
yesterday because I slept most of the day. And I barely woke up
today!" She shuddered. "I wasn't feeling all that well myself when
I got ready for school, and I even thought about just getting my
mom to call in and tell them I was sick. God, if I had done that,
who knows what would have happened? Maybe no one would have seen
something was wrong with Gracie in time!"
    Sam's crying was renewed but, this time, it
was in relief that they had been able to help Gracelyn before
something much worse could have happened to her. Aline hated doing
this to her friend especially when she was so upset, but she kept
asking Sam questions until she got the answers she needed about the
mysterious stuff happening to them. Like everyone else, Sam had a
hard time remembering what had happened to them during Aline’s
birthday party and she was equally vague about her memories from
last night. Cassie and Meran pretty much said the same things,
which kind of made them annoyed because they said Aline was being
weird.
    While Aline was talking to her friends,
Trevor had been listening in though he never said a word. He kept
shooting meaningful glances at her, however, and she knew he was
trying to tell her that she should let the other girls know what
was going on. And she really wanted to, she did, but something made
her bite her tongue. Trevor remembered some of the stuff that had
happened to them for some reason, as she did (and Aline was betting
it had something to do with that silver leaf that had cut them
both), but her friends didn't seem to be aware that there was
anything strange about their tiredness and memory gaps. So she
didn't want to freak them out by telling them an insane fairy tale
about going to a weird ball in their dreams and dancing the whole
night away until their feet were sore or, in her case, bleeding.
So, flashing Trevor an apologetic glance, she didn't say anything
to her friends about her suspicions and wild theories. But when
homeroom was over and they split up to head for their different
classes, she grabbed Trevor by the hand and led him out of the
school grounds as quickly as she could.
    "Wait. Hey." He tried to get her to stop for
a minute. "We're skipping class?"
    "Absolutely," she replied. "I can't sit
around all day when I