Page 92 of Echoes

“I don’t mean to be rude. I’m sorry that you lost your father over this and that it’s caused so many problems, but to me, this thing was a gift. It gave me so much. Rachel is the love of my life. I don’t know what would’ve happened had I not seen that vision, because I don’t know for sure that we would’ve ended up here, but I also don’t care to find out. We’re here now, and we’re about to have two children. I don’t want anyone coming in here and ransacking our house or hurting my pregnant wife because we still have this thing.”

“I understand,” Eliza said. “And no one knows where Rosie stowed it, so you should be okay.”

“Shouldbe?” Rachel asked.

“No one knows Rosie had it,” Lydia explained. “They ransackedourhouse, which means they thoughtwedid. I think the best thing we can do now is get this device, take it deep into the woods somewhere, set it up to blow or something, and go. Then, none of us has it, and there’s nothing to find.”

“That could also make them angry, whoever it is that’s coming after it now,” Felicity suggested.

“Maybe, but it’s all we can do. If we don’t have it, they can’t take it, and maybe they give up. If they don’t, we–”

“Why don’t you go to the police?” Rachel asked.

“Because they can’t do anything. If thisisthe CIA, they’ll get away with it or just cover it up,” Eliza said. “If it’s some criminal, they’re not going to stop even if the cops know.”

“Just get it out of our house,” Violet told her. “I don’t care what you do with it after that.”

“Babe!”

“What? It’s the truth. Again, I’m not trying to be rude, and I don’t want anything to happen to any of you, but I won’t risk anything happening to Rachel.”

“I’d suggest you move, then,” Lydia spoke. “Weare.”

“Youare?”

“We’re going to change our names, too. It’s going to be a mess with the kids, but they’re young enough, and we’re only going to change their last names. Whoever is looking for us can probably still find us, but we’re hoping they give up before that.”

“What about you two?” Violet asked Rosie and Felicity.

“No one knows we had it, so we think we’re okay. We never talk about it at home now, so if theydidknow that Rosie brought some case up and they were, I don’t know, listening in somehow, they wouldn’t have heard us talking about it. They might just assume it was in storage, like these two did. We haven’t heard of any break-ins or issues where the shipwreck stuff is stored, though, so we’re pretty sure we’re okay. We only came along because you would’ve remembered at least Rosie, and we were hoping she could convince you to let us dig up the pool.”

“At least, we don’t have to do that,” Rosie said.

“You’re going to destroy it and run?” Rachel asked Eliza and Lydia.

“For now. I’m hoping we can find some way to end it. I just don’t know how yet,” Eliza shared.

“We need to figure out who’s coming after it,” Lydia added.

“And we can’t help you,” Felicity said and took Rosie’s hand. “I don’t want anyone to know that we had this thing at some point and come after us or our families. Eliza said the guy who killed her dad didn’t come after her or her mom again because he realized they had no idea about the thing, but he did listen in and watch their lives to some extent. I don’t want to worry about who’s watching us or listening into our conversations in case Rosie accidentally says something or I do. My mom isn’t well, so she’s probably going to move in with us soon, and I don’t–”

“It’s okay,” Eliza told her. “We know we need to do this alone. And for the kids, at least, I wanted Lydia to be safe as well and run with them while I dealt with this, but Lydia refused to let me do it alone.”

“For better or worse,” Lydia replied simply. “I don’t want our kids to be without their moms, but I can’t let her handle this by herself, either. If we were you and no one knew we’d ever even had it, we wouldn’t be going to such extremes, but I don’t want anyone coming after my kids in ten years or something. They were in the car with methat day when I pulled in, and I distracted them, so they didn’t see the gun, but I won’t let anyone hurt them. We’re ending this.” Lydia shrugged.

“We just need the device,” Eliza said. “And we won’t tell anyone where we got it from.”

“If you do…” Rachel began but didn’t say anything else.

“We wouldn’t,” Eliza repeated. “I wouldn’t ever want anyone to go through what I went through. I watched my father die, and then I basically watched my mother turn into a zombie because she lost the man she loved. I’d never put anyone else in that position. I won’t risk our children going through that, and I wouldn’t risk their lives, either.”

Rachel nodded and turned to Violet.

“I’ll get it. Then, you can go,” Violet said and stood.

“Thank you,” Eliza replied, standing up as well, with Lydia following suit. “And I’m sorry we had to come here at all.”

“Don’t be,” Rachel replied with a soft smile. “We know now. I’ll admit that we don’t know much, and we definitely don’t know it all, but we know that we’re not alone now and that Violetdidsee the future. She no longer has to wonder if it really happened. We also know, at least a little bit, about where the thing came from. It’s some kind of science, but also maybe not.”

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