Heather split's Arc

Chapter 1 of 6

Heather stood at the top of the stone tower she had claimed for herself, watching a vision she could not read. Her three children were asleep in the cottage below. Her sisters were not speaking, and Heather still called Bella every Tuesday and Cyndi every Thursday, holding both lines open like a bridge no one else would build. The vision shimmered above her palm: two blond heads, one white, a small bright device passing between them. It broke apart before she could see who took what. She pressed her hand flat against the tower's cold rail and tried again. The pink ends of her hair lifted in the wind. She had come up here every night this week, hoping the height would sharpen the pictures. It never did. The visions came in pieces, always her sisters, always something wrong, and she could not act on pieces. If she picked a side without knowing, she would lose the other one for good. Her children would grow up with half a family. The air above the rail cleared, then thickened. This time the vision held. Heather saw Cyndi in a quiet room, alone, sliding open a drawer. Cyndi lifted out a sleek scanner with a violet screen and slipped it inside her sleeve. She walked out without hurry. The room was Bella's. Heather knew the blue cloth on the chair. Her stomach dropped. The picture jumped forward. Cyndi stood in front of Bella now, holding the scanner out like an offering returned. She said something short. Bella's face did not change. Cyndi placed the device in Bella's hand and stepped back, chin lifted, waiting. Bella raised the scanner and pointed it at her sister. The violet screen brightened, held, and went dark. Bella lowered it. She shook her head once. She said one word Heather could not hear, and set the scanner down on the table between them. The vision closed. Heather stayed at the rail with her hand still open. She understood now what the pieces had been trying to show her. Cyndi had taken the scanner to force a reading. She had asked Bella to measure her worth for something, and the answer had been no. And Cyndi had known it would be no before she asked, because she had already stolen the device once to try it herself. The manipulation reached back months. It reached to Heather too. The Thursday calls. The quiet books Cyndi claimed to read. Heather went down the tower stairs with her hand on the wall. In the kitchen she picked up the phone. It was not Tuesday. It was not Thursday. She called Bella anyway. When Bella answered, Heather said, "I saw it. The scanner. Tell me what she wanted." There was a long pause on the line. Then Bella, quieter than Heather had ever heard her, said, "Come over. Bring the children."