The Sixth Event

By Kristen Morie-Osisek

Eighteen-year-old Raquel isn't eighteen anymore...

During Raquel's first semester of college, she witnesses the end of the world, only to wake up in her old room at her parents' house two years in the past. Even worse, it seems she's the only one who remembers—until Chris Lyley, a boy Raquel always thought was a loser, tells her he remembers the catastrophe.

Before long, they both discover new abilities. They're able to understand any language and teleport through time and space. If Raquel and Chris can figure out what caused the end of their world, maybe they can stop it.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Evernight Teen
• Release date: Jul 19, 2016
• ISBN: 9781772338478

Book preview

Chapter One

A dead crow lay on the grass by the quad, a cold breeze making its feathers move.

Branches rustled above my head, and I ducked when an enormous bunch of squawking crows swooped over me, living versions of the one on the ground, moving like an insect swarm over the roof of the writing building. I had never seen giant flocks moving like that in California. Of course, I hadn’t seen giant flocks like that in Vermont until now, either.

I shivered, stepping around the dead bird. Its beady eye was still open.

My heart jumped when something buzzed, and I blew out a breath. It was just my phone. The word Mom flashed at me when I took it out. I took the opportunity to walk quickly away from the dead crow as I lifted the phone to my ear. Hello?

Silence. When I looked back to the screen, the red call ended symbol flashed. I frowned and shoved it back in my pocket. That was the second time today. I wished she would just text.

Toying with my phone as I headed inside the dining hall, I debated whether or not to call her back. It was probably nothing, just her wanting to know how college was going or about the test I had coming up. Weird that she would call twice, though, and not leave a message.

My hands grew cold as I passed my phone from one to the other before grabbing my food. So much for the brand new heating system they had advertised on the university pamphlet.

Raquel! Hey! My roommate, Elsie, waved when I entered the dining area after paying. I took a seat next to her at the round table she had taken. Her boyfriend, Stan, looking a bit hobo-ish in a gray hoodie, sat across from us and peered at his phone.

How was European history? Elsie asked, and I rolled my eyes as I put my plate down. I gave up wondering what Mom may need and put my phone back in my pocket. If it was important, she'd leave a message, and I didn't want to seem anti-social like Stan.

Other than the lights flickering a ton and the snoring people, not so bad, I said. You get any of that today?

Elsie shook her head, giving a flippant wave. I cut class.

I rested my chin on my hands, slowly munching a fry. I wish I had. That light was annoying and gave me a headache. And weird, considering there was no storm or anything outside. Could really cold weather make lights flicker?

Could the cold have killed that bird? I frowned and pushed the thought out of my mind.

Elsie poked her boyfriend in the shoulder. Stan, what are you doing?

My phone's being weird. He poked it at with one finger. It keeps gaining and losing connection.

Try restarting it, I said, staring out the window at some leaves that were whirling in what must be a pretty strong breeze while nibbling at another fry off of my plate. They tasted less greasy than usual today, and weren’t as good. Also maybe because of the cold.

Did that already, he said, reaching over and nabbing a piece of pizza crust off Elsie's plate. It's still doing it.

Hm. I looked at my own phone, the Droid my parents had bought me as a high school graduation gift. The little bars flickered as I watched. You're right. Weird. That explained the dropped calls, at least.

There's probably a storm somewhere, Elsie said. I heard we're supposed to get rain.

I perked up. What about snow? I asked as Stan sighed and put his phone in his pocket. I want to see snow.

Give it a few more months, Elsie said with a grin. Around Christmas is when it usually starts. There'll be plenty during your second semester, believe me. You'll be sick of it in two weeks.

Doubtful, I said. I'm sick of California weather. I had to deal with it for eighteen years.

Yeah, but hot weather means the girls dress hot, Stan said, and Elsie punched him in the shoulder. I rolled my eyes. What? he said. You guys want to rush, don’t you? Better brush up on…dressing hot, I guess.

Maybe, Elsie said, and I shrugged.

I don’t even know what all the Greek letters mean, I said. Though it does sound fun. I imagined myself wearing a Greek jacket, or whatever sorority girls did, living in a house with a bunch of other girls. A quick track to college parties, good looking boys, and close friends sounded good to me.

As long as they weren’t fake friends. I frowned, thinking of Jackie and how she had stolen Brad. Nothing lasted forever.

Oh well. This was college. I had plenty of time to decide. And it wasn’t like rushing would be hard.

The lights flickered overhead, and I looked up. Why does that keep happening?

Elsie didn’t react, opting to peer over Stan’s shoulder at his phone. Campus is old. Must just be crappy wiring.

I guess. I looked over to a group of guys at another table, one of whom threw a piece of paper at a flickering bulb. It missed. They all laughed, one of them shoving the guy who had thrown the paper in his seat. I could have sworn the shover was the guy who sat behind me in history. Not bad looking by any means, and maybe I could ask to study with him.

You gonna eat all those fries? Stan broke into my thoughts.

I shoved my plate over.

Still planning to get that TV for the common room? Elsie asked. I got the money from my parents.

Heck yeah, I said, turning away from staring at the guys. I’m tired of not having one, and I’ll have money soon. I’m going to try working at Lakeside’s. Applications open up tomorrow. My first real job. That would show my dad I wasn’t spoiled.

Good luck. You won’t have time to rush if you work all the time, though, Elsie pointed out.

I’m not going to work all the time. Just enough to get the important things. I slid my plate of fries back over and took one. Besides, it looks good on resumes, and I never worked in high school.

If you had, you wouldn’t want to. It sucks, Elsie said with a laugh.

Yeah, maybe. She could be right, but I had to at least try if I wanted a real job after graduation. Especially given I was at a party school.

The lights flickered again, and I groaned. A party school that apparently couldn’t afford decent wiring.

Oh well. I glanced back over at the table full of guys as we got up and took our trays to the rickety conveyer belt that would whisk them away to be cleaned. The cute one was currently staring at his phone with a frown. I would have to ask his name at our next history class.

Stan started poking at his phone again as we walked outside into the chilly air. Damn, I muttered. Did it get even colder?

Crap, I have no service at all, Stan said.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. Well, I sure do, I said, slipping it out and glancing at the screen. Mom again.

Holy crap, look at that! someone screamed. I didn’t recognize the voice. I jerked my head up and saw a Frisbee fall to the lawn as the person who was supposed to catch it ignored it in favor of looking at the sky.

What the hell? Elsie said. My heart thudded, my muscles tensing with adrenalin.

The sky pulsed green.

Tornado! another girl shouted, a twang in her accent. Do we even get tornadoes in Vermont?

Then fire and ash streaked across the sky, and a boulder the size of a car slammed the ground next to me.

It took me a moment to figure out that I was lying on the ground, the world around me silent save for the ringing in my ears. The smoking boulder loomed over me, heat billowing as though I sat next to an oven. Everywhere on the quad, people ran with their mouths open, but I couldn’t hear them. I struggled to my feet, muddy grass getting flung into my face from the pounding shoes of people around me. Elsie was gone, and I saw Stan’s phone lying on the ground. Or maybe it was mine.

No, it couldn’t be. My phone rang in my pocket.

Dark shapes began to thud to the ground. Crows. But this time, there were dozens of them.

My hearing snapped back in time to hear someone screaming, and the deafening sound of what I realized was shattering stone when chunks of the writing building fell on the grass.

No. This was impossible.

That was all I could think. I started to run, as the sky darkened farther overhead. Black flakes fell next to my face, and when I breathed I choked on one of them, spitting and coughing. I ignored the ringing phone in my pocket. Mom again, probably.

Was she okay?

Another huge shape fell from the sky, heading right for me. And then nothing.

****

My heart pounded as my white ceiling greeted me when I opened my eyes.

I blinked frantically, the vision of the rock hitting me still fresh in my mind, the instantaneous crushing sensation throughout my body fading to a dull, residual mental ache. Fear crashed and faded in a wave of relief when it all resolved into the deep blackness of my dorm room.

That had been one hell of a dream.

I narrowed my eyes, still staring up at the ceiling. My dorm ceiling was gray, not white.

I sat up and turned to the left expecting the glaring green glow of my digital clock. Instead, I was greeted with the dim shape of a dresser, outlined in the rosy hue of a rising sun.

My pink and white dresser at my parent’s house.

Shock spread through me, sending tingles down to my toes. My bedroom was coming into view, not my dorm room.

A stuffed dog sat at the foot of my bed. Instead of the giant glass window over the football field, my lace pink curtains fluttered in a warm California breeze, a copy of Teen Vogue sitting on the sill.

I rolled over and stood, grabbing the magazine. Justin Bieber smiled at me from the October 2010 cover.

Impossible. This was impossible.

Elsie! I shouted my roommate’s name. The magazine hit the floor with a ruffle of pages. The plush, carpeted floor, not the hard tiles of my room at college.

My comfy bed, complete with a feather mattress, took up the same side of the room it always had. My computer desk sat at the far side of the bed, the blocky Dell PC taking up most of the space. A life sciences textbook lay next to it, the image of a tiger on the front coming into focus as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. On the floor, my giant shoulder bag from high school lay with papers strewn around it. I took a step closer, peering at the letters, my heart pounding so hard I didn’t think to turn on the light.

High school biology notes. I had taken biology in my junior year.

I fled, my door banging against the wall as I ran to the bathroom, flicking on the light.

Elsie wasn’t here. I stared into the mirror of my parent’s bathroom, at my frizzy brown hair. I didn’t look so different. A little bit shorter, a little bit ganglier. No freshmen fifteen. I still had that annoying pattern of three pimples that kept coming back on my chin.

But I was still younger. Not eighteen, not a college student.

A girl in high school. High school. Again.

I stared in shock. This couldn’t be true. It must still be part of the dream, part of the green sky and rocks hitting me. I blinked hard, touching my nightgown, pinching my arm until I winced with pain.

Mom! I shrieked so loud I thought the mirror would shatter. Mom, Mom, Mom!

My mother came rushing in, her robe pulled tightly around her. Raquel, what is it? Her hair framed her face in an unruly brown cloud, her eyes wide and face pale. What’s wrong? She was as scared as I was.

What happened? I shouted as I grabbed her. What happened?

What do you mean? She pulled me out of the hug, looking into my eyes. Raquel, what is wrong? Are you sick?

In the glaring bathroom light, I stared into her wide eyes. She stared back at me, full of concern, full of worry for her daughter.

The…I died. There were birds dying, and a rock hit me, and I should be in college… I babbled, and she shook her head, gripping me tight.

Raquel, it was a nightmare. That’s all.

What’s going on? My dad’s voice shouted from the dark hallway.

Nothing, dear, my mother shouted back. Raquel just had a little night terror.

At sixteen? Disbelief and exhaustion edged his voice. Go to sleep, Raquel, he added, mumbling.

My heart pounded harder, even as I shut my mouth, looking back into the mirror. The mirror in my parent’s house, where a sixteen-year-old me stared back. My stomach flipped, then sank into my feet.

I was two years younger. The world was two years younger.

And no one else remembered anything.

****

Today was Sunday. Sunday, not Friday. It had been Friday before, right? Where had Saturday gone?

Man, you are out of it today. My dad snapped his fingers in front of my face. That nightmare really threw you, huh? He laughed.

Bright sun shone in through the windows of the den, the heat causing prickles of sweat to bead on my arms and neck. My dad sat next to me on the couch, the TV blaring a football game between the 49ers and some team who wore purple. The clock on the TV read the date, two years in the past, as well as the descending seconds to the end of the quarter. The faint, tangy scent of pesto emanated from the kitchen.

None of it felt real. It couldn’t be real.

I blinked, trying to focus. Something sizzled in the kitchen, and the sound sent my heart pounding. I thought of the dead birds that had littered the ground at my feet, a whole carpet of dead black feathers. Dread that hadn’t left since I woke up and had me spending the rest of the night staring at my ceiling clenched my shoulders.

No! Run, run! my dad screamed at the TV. A red clad player got jumped on by a bunch of people in purple, and the announcer swept to coverage of the guy on the purple team who had been the first to make the tackle. The team was the Ravens.

I couldn't sit here anymore. I left the den, heading upstairs to my room. I shivered when I saw it.

My cozy room, complete with the fluffy pink bedspread and searing white curtains that I had been so ready to leave three months ago. Everything in it told me I was back in high school.

When I booted up my ancient computer, I didn't hear the telltale whine that had convinced my parents to get me a new laptop for college. That had started about six months into my senior year.

This was crazy. It was impossible. Or maybe I was just going crazy. Did people who were going crazy know they were going crazy before they started shouting gibberish in the street?

I went to my emails, but I had none. I hadn't gotten emails very often until college. I searched through my archives, even my spam, but there was nothing. I didn't find what I was looking for.

I didn't have my Droid anymore. I would have to remember Elsie's number off the top of my head.

 My cell phone was crappy. I had gotten the free cheapo version, my parents unwilling to trust me with a smartphone in high school, and all it could do was call. It would have to be enough.

Elsie must remember me. Maybe I had hit my head, or had some sort of brain damage, and my parents were just … I don't know. Keeping things the same, so they didn't upset me, like I had Alzheimer's and I only thought this was the past or something. It didn't make sense but it was still better than believing I had woken up back in time when … what? When the world ended?

I put it out my mind, focusing on Elsie's number. My memory wasn't great, as evidenced by my shitty grades in all my history classes, but now it was important. I had seen the number often enough in my phone. I had to call her. I had to see. I hadn’t seen her when the rock hit, and in the back of my mind I wanted to make sure she was okay.

The first number connected to someone who didn't speak English, and I bit back a sigh. I had really thought that was right.

Of course, if this was the past, maybe her cell number was different. Or didn’t exist.

No, I couldn’t think that. That was impossible. Something else. I tapped my phone against the side of my desk, thinking hard. Elsie had two numbers in my old phone. The second one was her home number. I envisioned it in my mind, focusing on it harder than I had focused on anything before. I had to remember it. It was that or give up on reality.

The phone rang, and this time the woman who picked up said in clear English, Orayan household.

Yes. My heart leapt to my throat, strangling my words for a moment. Can I talk to Elsie?

Sure. May I ask who's calling? Elsie had always complained about how formal her mother sounded on the phone. This had to be it. She would tell me what really happened.

Raquel. I kept it simple, my hands shaking. The silence while she got Elsie made my mind scrabble in circles. What do I say? Why was Elsie even home? She should be back in Vermont. With me.

Hey. My roommate’s voice sent a pulse of relief through me.

Elsie! It's Raquel.

Who?

My stomach plummeted. Raquel Blanco. Your college roommate from Vermont. University of Vermont. She had to remember. We were gonna buy a TV? Dinner at Lakeside's every night? Gross pizzas? My voice rose in pitch.

Uh, sorry. You have the wrong number.

No, it’s—

Sorry. I'm not even in college yet. Bye.

And that was it. My phone went silent, the little numbers flashing on the screen. The call hadn't even taken two minutes.

Two minutes, to finally convince me that I was either way crazier than I thought or that I really had warped through time.

Raquel! My mother's voice made me jump, and I nearly dropped my phone. Dinner in five!

Dinner with my parents. My gaze traveled my room, lingering on the backpack on the floor. My Droid’s ringtone echoed in my mind. Why had it rung before … whatever I had seen happen, happened? The world ending, maybe? What could she have wanted to say?

I didn't want to die again in two years. But as I went downstairs to dinner, I stayed quiet. I didn't want to end up in a mental institution, either.

And tomorrow, I would have to go back to Kale High.

Chapter Two

Raquel! Jackie called to me as the bus dropped me off at school. I missed driving myself, but my dad always took the car to work too early in the mornings until late in my senior year when he had changed jobs, and Mom hadn’t gotten the new Prius yet.

Raquel, hello! Jackie called again, waving from across the quad. Jackie. Right. I was still friends with Jackie. We hadn’t fought until the end of this year, during the summer. Over Brad, who hadn’t even transferred yet.

One day after I had woken up in this time warp, and the thought kept intruding that maybe it had all been a dream like my mother had said. A really, really vivid nightmare. No one else remembered. My parents had spent our entire dinner yesterday talking about the 49ers game and their plans to go out this coming weekend.

But it couldn’t be just a nightmare. No dream was as detailed as this had been. I remembered things and knew things that I shouldn’t. Obama would be reelected. There would be a huge oil spill. Thomas Pursick would be valedictorian of our class. Elsie, my college roommate, didn’t remember me.

Maybe I should be enjoying it. I had the chance to do things over, win the lottery, maybe even do great in school so I wouldn’t end up at a party college like Rutland.

But I just couldn’t think about anything other than the sky raining fire around me, Elsie vanishing, and the dead birds everywhere. My plans in college, my plans to rush, my plans to work, the hot guy in history, wiped out in seconds.

Uh, hello? Did you do the math homework? I jumped as Jackie ran up to me, her white-blonde curls bouncing. The bright California sun shone down on my tanned skin. I had been pale as a ghost in Vermont.

I nodded. I couldn’t actually remember if I had. If I checked in my bag, would the completed problems be there?

Are you ready for this weekend? I nodded like a robot. I’m so happy to finally see Curtis again. He spent a whole year in England! He must be so high-class now.

I nodded again, letting her chat about people and things that I no longer really cared that much about as we walked through the entranceway, the familiar squat gray buildings of Kale High School just