Chapter 14
At Toby’s fateful comment, Devon just shut down inside. It was hard to even imagine what the hell was happening. She had no way of knowing whether what he had just claimed was true or the product of a vivid imagination on his part, maybe wrapped up with wishful thinking.
It was hard for her to even contemplate such a statement as being fact. And yet he’d stated it so matter-of-factly, as if it were commonplace to drop that bomb, with seemingly no idea that what he’d proposed was so shocking.
Camden left soon afterward, but he’d been worried about her.
She’d just basically waved him off and had gone up to her room, where she sat here, trying to figure out what had just happened to everything she thought she knew, particularly about her best friend.
She had no idea what any of this even meant.
At the bottom of all of it was this absolutely horrible, yet fundamental question.
Was it possible?
Was any of this possible?
Was this something Devon had been set up for?
She had no idea what to even make of it, and yet other people around her were moving chess pieces on a board in a game intended to end in checkmate, when she hadn’t even known she was part of the game.
This game would somehow replace her … permanently.
The concept was just so shocking. However, she knew of multiple cases where people bandied about stories of possession, resulting in all kinds of comments about what was possible, what was not.
She heard terms used, such as mediumship or willful possession and all kinds of other things that had her mind reeling.
Now her fingers raced across her phone as she tried to search for anything that would make sense of this.
Inside, she was paralyzed with fear because what if it were true?
What if this was all something that had been set up by her best friend Tabitha, with the hope that she could come back, but not just come back, come back as Devon, …
healthy and whole, taking over and having her kids again, assuming Devon’s identity.
Devon didn’t even know what to say and just sat here, frozen.
The kids had come upstairs and hesitated outside her door and then walked away.
It was beyond her to talk to them in a normal tone of voice or in a normal way at all right now.
She barely understood that Tabby was now awake and talking.
Was that due to Stefan? Camden? Or Mother Nature’s healing? Devon should go talk to them, but …
She heard them outside her door again.
“You shouldn’t have told her,” Tabby whispered.
“Why not?” Toby asked.
“You don’t see Mom out there, do you? Maybe Devon can stop the process.”
“Why?” Toby asked.
Tabby sighed. “Just because we want Mom back doesn’t mean that Devon is willing to be possessed.”
Devon still heard Tabby’s words ringing in her head.
“Why wouldn’t she be?” Toby asked, his tone hushed. “She loved Mom, and Mom was her best friend.”
“Yeah, but she still wants to live her own life, you idiot,” Tabby snapped.
The twins continued to fight outside Devon’s door before they meandered toward their own rooms.
Just the thought of that conversation was enough to stop Devon in her tracks and to start the shakes all over again.
Was it that simple to them? Did they have no concept of Devon and her wants and desires?
Did the kids really not understand how totally selfish this was, or did they just not care about Devon at all?
Because everything was about bringing their mom back, that was something Devon could understand.
But not to the exclusion of everything else, not with Devon giving up her own life for it to happen.
How the hell did anybody expect someone to do that?
Devon wasn’t responsible for what had happened to her friend and was in no way guilty for anything that had happened since.
She’d done her very best to be there for Tabitha, to be everything a good friend could be—even to the extent of assuming responsibility for her children.
So it was devastating to hear those very kids talking like this, as if Devon were just some pawn in their plan to take over her life.
And that Tabitha even thought about doing this was just as shocking.
What could Tabitha even do? Was any of this even possible? But how?
And yet, even as Devon had those thoughts, she remembered the sheer volume of the weird energies that were now all around her front yard and backyard too.
Energies that the kids could apparently see, that Devon had been trying to protect them from, when, all the while, the twins had been actively bringing them in.
Devon stared off into the distance, tears in her eyes, realizing again what a fool she had been.
They weren’t struggling to adjust to this new life at all.
They had been trying to make Devon lose her own life, just so they could have the life they wanted, by erasing Devon and getting their mother back instead—or some rotten semblance of what she had been.
How was Devon supposed to deal with the twins now?
All this time she had second-guessed every moment, trying to do her best to help the twins and herself all make a healthy adjustment, while they had just seen her as a body for their mother to take over, erasing her very existence in the process—without her knowledge, much less permission.
Finally, Devon’s tears dried, and the shakes stopped.
She still couldn’t comprehend it, and the entire concept boggled her mind.
She flung herself back on the bed, as she considered all the years she had been involved in their care, up until their mother’s death.
All those years she had been there for them, helping them, taking them to baseball games, doing everything she possibly could.
It had all seemed completely natural. So, when their mother was dying, the twins would need a place to go.
It had been seen by many as almost a given that Devon should take the twins because she had always been the one who had done everything else for them.
And yet, now here she was, at a crossroads, and she couldn’t even begin to understand how she had gotten here.
Later, when she thought the house had gone quiet and probably the twins were asleep, Devon considered getting up and doing something—even taking a shower—but she was completely incapable.
She stood in front of the shower, then turned around, wondering why she was in the bathroom.
She walked down to the kitchen, staring out at the backyard that even now glowed with the weird iridescent light of way-too-many energies. The tears were always right there, but so was the fear now. She stepped outside onto the deck, and one odd shimmer stood out.
She froze, wondering if it was coming her way. When she heard a very quiet “Hello,” she realized that Camden was outside as well, standing there on his deck.
“There you are.” She stared at him.
He nodded. “I know how you feel.”
“Do you?” she asked, her voice barely a whisper.
He walked to the fence, hopped over, then came up onto the deck to see her. “Are you okay?” His voice was gentle. “I’ve been wanting to see you, to make sure you’re all right.”
When he opened his arms, she walked straight into them, and he held her close while she cried. She lifted her head and whispered, “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do right now. They were setting me up this entire time to die. I don’t even want to see them.”
He just held her close and let her ramble.
“All this time I’ve been doing my best to be there for them, helping them, trying to be that one person they could count on. And for what?”
His arms tightened securely around her, then relaxed. “Do we believe them? I guess that’s the first question.”
She pondered that for a long moment. “I believe that they believe it. I heard them whispering outside my door earlier. If we saw the book, we might know more. Regardless, this yard full of remnants is scary proof of something.”
“Did Tabitha ever talk about life after death?”
“Not a whole lot. She would see psychics and do things like that, and it seemed she gradually became quite focused on death. I always just assumed it was a fairly natural reaction to the fact that she was facing her own.”
“That makes sense, and it’s probably at least partly why the kids were also so focused on it,” he conceded, “but we need to find out more.”
“I guess one of the biggest things that I have to ask,” she began, “and I don’t even know if you have an answer for me, but … is this possession even possible?” When he hesitated, her heart sank, and she closed her eyes. “Dear God.”
“I can’t say for sure,” he added, way too quickly for her to believe him, “but we do know of multiple cases where it seems as if possession has occurred. Stefan would have far more experience with this.”
She lifted her head and looked at him. “Do you think he would talk to me?” she asked urgently.
“I’ve already contacted him,” he told her, “and we can either go see him tomorrow or set up Skype or whatever.”
“I have to work,” she whispered, but then she laughed. “What’s the point of me working? I mean, apparently my friend will take over my job anyway. Wait. Will I still have the skills for her to use? Can she just step into my life, and nobody would notice? Is that how simple all this really is?”
“I would think people would notice,” he declared. “I can’t imagine it going undetected, but again I don’t really know. Did she have other skills?”
“She did. She was the receptionist, before she retrained to be a hygienist—so she could take over my job,” her voice rising in a highly tense moment of understanding.
“Did she have life insurance?” he asked.
“She did, … you know, for the kids, but it wasn’t very much. After she was diagnosed, she wasn’t allowed to get any more because she already had the cancer. She was in the fight of her life, and I don’t think that was particularly at the top of her list.”
“Right, but you’re healthy.”