Read Eden for Free Online

follow you into the woods because I was mad at you and I wanted to get you in trouble. You had been sneaking out for months. If I wanted to rat you out, I could have done it long before then. Now this part is really complicated, so just hear me out. I knew you were going to be in trouble that night before you did. I don’t know how I know these things, but I do. And that’s why I had the rope with me.”
    “Wait… what?” Max is now utterly confused.
    “Sometimes I can see events in the future. I’ve been able to for as long as I can remember. They come to me like dreams, even when I’m not sleeping. It’s maddening. They’re like puzzles in that they’re hardly ever linear and it’s only a few seconds of the future. A lot of the times I don’t even know what they mean or how far into the future it is. It’s like I get this feeling of déjà vu.”
    “Déjà vu?” asks Max.
    “Yeah… you know what that is right?”
    “Yeah, I mean, I think so. It’s like when I started seeing that girl Suzy Myers we went to school with at St. Andrews. She acted so cavalier when we first met and then as soon as we had sex she started acting just like my ex-girlfriend Lauren with the clingy, naggy bullshit….”
    “Okay, stop!” Mia interrupts not wanting to hear another word. “Nihilo sanctum estne?” she mutters under her breath, as she often does when talking to her brother. How in the world could we have come from the same womb?
    She tries again: “When I experience déjà vu, it’s far different from what most people describe. First, I get this moment of nausea, like when I get sick in the car sometimes. And that’s when I realize it’s happening. It’s like a vision or a dream while I’m awake. In this vision I can see the future. It’s just a glimpse, but it’s enough to know what will happen after that initial moment, as if I’m watching the future in the past. Are you following?”
    Max’s mind is blown. His head is bent toward his sister, as he hangs on every word, trying to keep up, but wanting to ask questions. Mia’s revelation is causing pieces to fall into place, so many things that have been a mystery to him for so long. Like the time his family was set to go to Lake Tahoe for their yearly ski trip and how skittish Mia was for several weeks prior, finally demanding that they go somewhere else, anywhere else, but there. Though vexed, the Sinclairs eventually caved, and they instead went to London to visit their grandparents.
    It would end up being the endless vacation. They hadn’t been home since.
    “Max?” she asks again. “Are you listening?”
    “Yes, of course I am. I’m just trying to process everything.” He sighs and shifts to the edge of his seat, combing both hands through his hair. He falls back and looks to the ceiling. Reluctantly, and not really wanting to know the answer, he asks, “So I can only assume you’re telling me this because there is something I need to know about my future. Is that right?”
    Mia is relieved, and shocked, that her brother has accepted what she has told him, but she dreads what she must tell him next. “You’re right Max. There is something you need to know about your future. It’s still rather vague — I’ve seen just fragments of time — but I know what I always know to be true.”
    Max swallows hard and his chest tightens. “And what might that be, exactly?” he whispers.
    She turns to face him, staring deeply into his eyes. “Whenever I have had a vision of your future, it has always been tied to your mortal danger. And the one thing I am certain of is that you are in danger, grave danger.”
    “I am?” he asks weakly.
    Mia nods and gives his hand a small, sympathetic squeeze. Max can sense the fear in her voice and it terrifies him. But staying true to character, he puts on a brave face and remains optimistic. “Okay, since this is an event tied to my future, if you tell me everything you know now, then I will be able to avoid