Page 89 of Resolve
The bedroom door crashes open as Alice waltzes inside. She stands on the opposite side of the bed with her hands on her hips. “Talk, would you? Or are you going to sit there until you melt into the bed?”
His shoulders hunch as he leans away from her.
She throws her hands up and sighs in exasperation. “Look, I know it’s probably been a while since you talked to people. But your job is over now. Your assignment is dead. You’refree, Sam. You can make noise”—she knocks her fist into the headboard, then shakes it—“you can beseen. Be loud! Tell us what you want, for fuck’s sake! Because none of us know you well enough yet to figure it out.”
“How come you’re not afraid to speak up?” I ask her, genuinely curious.
Alice’s eyes narrow on Sam, waiting for something from him. When he doesn’t give her anything, she huffs and responds, “My assignment didn’t require as much supervision, so Dad would pick me up a lot to help him with other things. And anytime I was with the guy, he’d be doing boring stuff. So I’d go in the den to watch TV. Made his staff think the room was haunted,” she adds with a snicker.
Dane scoffs, crossing his arms over his chest. “So even then, you slacked off. When’s the last time you pushed yourself? I’m not trying to be a dick this time. I’m serious.”
She flips her hair and sits on the bed with a bounce. “Look. Not all of us can do the same exact thing as the others. Maybe it skipped me. Maybe only my brothers can do it.”
He gives me a look, like,see what I’ve been dealing with?
“Can you try again with me?” I ask her softly. She frowns, and I lift a shoulder. “It can’t hurt. Maybe trying with a different person will help.”
“Fine.” She scoots to the middle of the bed and places her hand on my arm.
Sam looks up, watching us.
Alice closes her eyes, her face tightening like she’s straining to getsomething out, then gasps and lets me go. “See? Nothing.”
I mean... I saw something, but I’m not sure if that was real or not.
“How do you make objects invisible?”
She leans past Sam to a pillow, touching her hand to it as she had to me. It vanishes almost as soon as she makes contact. “Like that. That’s what I tried to do with you.”
Sam shakes his head.
“What is it?” I ask.
He disappears at the same time as Alice.
I look at Dane. He shrugs, but gently nudges the door closed and stands in front of the smaller opening.
They both reappear a few seconds later.
Sam taps the sides of his index fingers together.
“What does that mean?” Alice prompts.
I mirror him, as if that might help me understand. Then think about how they’d both disappeared together. “Together? Do you mean at the same time?”
He nods.
Holding my hand out to Alice, I offer her a short head bob of encouragement. “Try it. Make me invisible at the same time as you.”
She frowns, her brow pinching with concentration before she takes my hand.
I give it a second before looking around. Nothing looks different…
“I still see both of you,” Dane answers my unspoken question. Alice releases me with a dramatic sigh. “But,” he presses before she can say anything negative, “I started to see you fading away. It was only a little, but it was there.”
She perks up. “Really?”
“Yup.” He smirks. “Looks like you have a lot more to practice now.”
