Authors: Eva Truesdale
***
"Al l l ex! Get up! Get up, get up, get up!"
"What the—" My eyes opened to the blurry sight of my dresser bouncing up and down as the sound of creaking bedsprings filled the air. "Lora, what are you—ow!" I'd just been about to sit up when I received a hard kick to my left side. "What the heck was that for?" I asked, shoving her as I sat the rest of the way up.
Lora toppled backwards off the bed, but somehow still managed to land gracefully on the floor.
"Aren't you a little old to be jumping on the bed?" I asked grumpily.
"No," she said. "Now get up, we're going to the mal . I need new cleats."
"Yeah…thanks for the invite, but I'm going to go ahead and go back to sleep now. Maybe you should try me again at a more reasonable hour?" I suggested, pul ing the covers up over my head.
"It's almost ten in the morning! There's nothing unreasonable about it," Lora protested. "And besides—I'm not inviting you. You're taking me."
"Says who?" I asked from underneath my makeshift tent of sheets and blankets.
"Says me."
"Oh, real y?"
"Yes real y. Unless, of course, you want Mom to know that those people were here last night…"
I threw the covers off and glared into the triumphant eyes of my little sister. God she could be annoying. "Blackmail?" I asked in disbelief, my eyes narrowing. "You wouldn't."
"Wouldn't I?" Lora said with a devilish grin.
"What about that sisterhood bond we're supposed to share?" I wailed.
"Yeah, what about it? It didn't seem to be here last night either—you know, when you slammed the door in my face?"
Ouch. She had me there. It was looking like I might have to be her personal chauffeur for a while after all . "You fight dirty," I said with a frown.
"Oh get over it," Lora said, roll ing her eyes. "I'm kind of doing you a favor, anyway, by convincing Mom to let you take me. You're supposed to be grounded, remember?"
"Gee, thanks," I said. "I don't know how I'll ever repay your generosity."
generosity."
"Oh, I'm sure I'll think of a way for you to," Lora said with a smile. "Now hurry up and get ready, wil you?"
"Alright, alright..." I said with a yawn, reluctantly turning and planting my feet on the cold hardwood floor. "I'll meet you out front in about ten minutes," I yawned, walking to the vanity in the corner of my room.
I stared sleepily into my dresser mirror as Lora left, closing the door behind her. In zombie-like fashion, I grabbed a brush that was balancing on the corner of the dresser and pulled my hair back into my trademark messy bun. I contemplated putting on make-up for about five seconds before deciding against it (I was way too tired to be waving a massacre wand anywhere near my eye), then stood up and walked slowly over to my closet. As I crossed the room, the fog of sleepiness hovering over my mind began to lift, and memories of last night flooded in.
I thumbed absentmindedly through the shirts hanging in my closet while the conversation I’d had with Kael played through my mind. There was one part that kept repeating itself: he didn’t want me to leave the house. Which probably meant that he wouldn't approve of me going as far away as the mal —the closest one was about forty-five minutes away from here.
Not that I cared about, or needed, his approval. As reluctant as I might have been to admit it though, I did need protection, and so did my family. If I took Lora with me, I might be putting her in danger too. Had Kael been bluffing when he said he wouldn't follow me? Something inside me doubted it. He didn't real y seem like the bluffing type.
But what about the others? Surely they wouldn't abandon me just because I left the house? I hated to make things difficult for them, but they couldn't real y expect me to stay home for the rest of my life.
Could they?
I realized then that I had no idea how to answer that question. After all , I barely even knew any of them. I mean, we'd all known each other for what? A grand total of two days? Of course, that realization begged the question: why was I taking orders from them, anyway? And an even more important question: how did I know whether or not they real y had my best interests at heart?
Maybe I was just being paranoid, or maybe I was just making up excuses because I real y wanted to get out of the house. But whatever the reason, I suddenly found myself determined to spend the day somewhere other than Cody's Creek. It wasn't like I couldn't take care of myself, after all . I wasn't a child. Besides, there was no guarantee that I would even be in any danger if I left the house. I'd gone to town yesterday and made it back alive, hadn't I? On the other hand, if I didn't take Lora then my mom would find out about my late-night visitors—and then I would definitely be in trouble. I shuddered at the thought Yeah, I would take my chances.
Still , I hesitated. I felt a little bad running off, especial y considering I’d promised to stay put. Not bad enough to change my decision, mind you—I just wished I could at least tell them I was going, so they didn't think I was trying to sneak off on them or anything.
I crossed the room to my window and pulled the blinds up.
My eyes scanned the yard and the trees surrounding it, wondering if Jack was still out there or if someone else had taken over for him by now. And if Jack was out there, how could I flag him down? I guess I should’ve gotten a phone number or something.
Then I remembered what Vanessa had told me: they could use something that worked much better than cel phones.
The only problem was, I had no idea how to do that weird thought-speech thing.
"Alex!" My sister's voice and the sudden rap of her "Alex!" My sister's voice and the sudden rap of her knuckles on the door made me jump. "You ready?"
"...Give me like five more minutes, ok?"
"Hurry up! I'll be out front.”
I took a deep breath and turned back to the window. It couldn’t be that hard, right? Kael definitely didn't have any problems reading my mind last night. With that in mind, it was him I tried to focus on.
(Hey...Kael?) I thought, feeling a little sil y. I waited silently for nearly a full minute, but he didn't reply. I’d tried imagining I was talking with him face to face, but maybe that was the wrong way to do it? I couldn't imagine any other way, though, so I just continued: (I know you told me to stay at the house but...wel , I'm going to go out for a bit this afternoon.
But I'm not going to be too far away...and I won't be gone long.)
Five seconds passed. Ten seconds passed. Twenty seconds, forty seconds, a minute—This is stupid, I thought to myself, shaking my head in frustration. (If you're listening, then I'll take your silence as a 'go ahead'—and that's exactly what I'm going to do. I'm leaving now.)
Still nothing. With a shrug, I pulled the blinds shut. Then I turned around, grabbed my purse and a light jacket, and headed for my car.
***
Boone was a relatively small town, especial y at the moment; the majority of its population was made up of students who attended the university there, and most of them had already gone home for the summer. Combine that with the fact that it was a weekday, and the result was a mal parking lot that was almost completely empty, and kind of eerie because of it.
Inside the mal , things weren't much different. As we stroll ed between stores, we had only each other and the sound of our footsteps for company until we decided to take a break from shopping and head to the food court. There, about twenty other people were scattered amongst the tables and chairs, including a group of people I recognized from my high school. I waved to them as I sat down with my plate of Chinese food. My sister joined me a few minutes later wearing a stony expression on her face that I was beginning to think might be permanent. We ate in silence for as long as I could take, and then I breathed an irritable sigh.
"How long is this silent treatment going to last, anyway?" I asked, stabbing a piece of sesame chicken with unnecessary force.
"How about until you explain what's going on with you?"
I laid my fork down, my appetite rapidly disappearing. "So, it's going to last forever then. Great."
"We use to talk," Lora said. "You use to tell me everything."
"I'm sorry, Lora.”
She just shook her head and turned away. It wasn't long, though, before she spoke again: "There's that guy again,"
she said. I turned my head to follow her gaze, which eventual y landed on a blonde haired young man sitting by himself several tables away. "I've seen him like ten times now..." Lora said. "I think he's following us."
"I doubt it," I said quickly, more to convince myself than her.
"I doubt it," I said quickly, more to convince myself than her.
"I mean, there are hardly any people shopping in here—of course you're going to pass the same ones over and over again," I said, forcing my attention back to my food.
"Maybe," Lora said. "But he's looking over here now."
My head jerked around. Lora was right. But he looked away as soon as I laid eyes on him. "He's just some weirdo," I said with an attempt at a dismissive shrug. I watched him out of the corner of my eye until he got up and walked away a few minutes later, a shiver running up my arm as I watched him go. "We should get going," I said, jumping to my feet.
"…Okay," Lora agreed, eying me uncertainly. She gave her empty Styrofoam cup a shake. "But I'm going to get a refill first. I'll meet you outside, okay?"
I nodded, staring in the direction that guy had disappeared into. Slowly, I collected my stuff and headed toward the exit, out the door and into the brilliant sunlight.
As I stepped off the curb and into the parking lot, I couldn't help but toss a quick glance back over my shoulder. I knew I was overreacting. I mean, I hadn't even noticed him while we were shopping. So what if he just happened to be shopping in the same stores as us? That was no reason for me to be scanning the parking lot frantically, expecting the worst. And it was definitely no reason for me to practical y sprint to my car while scanning the parking lot frantically (and nearly running into a car or two in the process). But I did both those things, and when I final y reached my car, I threw open the door and climbed in as quickly as I could, slamming the door behind me.
With a shaky hand I slipped the key into the ignition and turned it, then dropped my sunglasses from their perch on top of my head down over my eyes. As my car's engine stammered to life, I leaned back against the headrest, wondering how much longer Lora was going to take. After a minute I twisted my head back towards the mal entrance, hoping to see her heading this way.
I couldn't see the entrance though, because it was being blocked by someone standing next to my passenger door.
My hand automatically flew to the lock, but I wasn’t quick enough. The door opened. And it was definitely not Lora that climbed inside.
"Hel o, Alex," Sera said, shutting the door and turning to me with a smile. "It's so nice to see you again."
“Sera?” I said, sitting up straight in surprise. “Can I…help you with something?”
“As a matter of fact, you can. If you wouldn’t mind driving me home?”
“Driving you… home?” What was I supposed to say to that?
Her expression was deathly serious, and somehow I was pretty sure she wouldn’t respond favorably if I told her to get the heck out of my car. Since I couldn’t think of anything else to say, I decided I’d better just go along with it. “Uh… I guess I can? Where do you live?”
“Not far from you. It’s easy enough to get to—I’ll tell you the way,” she said as she rummaged through the bag at her side.
“Well …okay. But we need to wait for my sister, she should be out in a min—”
“Actual y…” Sera interrupted quietly as her hand emerged from the bag, “I’m kind of in a hurry, so I’d prefer it if we could get going…Now.”
I would’ve argued. In fact, even as she spoke, I already had my mouth opened, and an argument ready to roll off my tongue. I swallowed it quickly, however, because out of the corner of my eye I saw what she’d been searching for in her bag.
Her left hand now held a shiny, silver pistol.
“Why do you have a gun?”
“Drive,” she ordered.
“What’s going on?” I demanded. “Why are you doing this—what have I ever done to you, anyway?”
“Drive,” she repeated in the same, toneless voice.
I obeyed with a little more enthusiasm than was necessary.
We shot out of the parking space, accompanied by the squeal of tires, and nearly collied with an oncoming SUV.
“You didn’t listen to me, Alex,” Sera said in a quiet voice once we’d been driving for about ten minutes. She twirled the gun casual y around her finger as she spoke.
“What are you talking about?” I asked, eyeing the gun nervously.
“I warned you about those people—about Kael and the others. And what did you do? You went to visit them.”
“It wasn’t exactly a leisurely visit!” My mouth fell open. Was she seriously going to hold that against me? “And how do you know about that, anyway?” I asked as an afterthought.
“I have my sources.”
“What sources?”
“I’d tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
“…Is that supposed to be funny?”
“It’s funny to me,” Sera said with a shrug. “But anyway, where I get my information isn’t real y important right now.”
She gazed out the window as she spoke. I gripped the steering wheel a little tighter.
“Okay—so you can’t tell me that,” I said through half-clenched teeth. “But at least tell me why? Why are you following me? What do you want with me and my family, anyway?”
“I’m just looking out for you, Alex.”
I pulled my eyes of the road and gave her a quick incredulous look. “This is your idea of looking out for someone? Are you insane?”
“Oh…you mean this?”
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched as Sera lifted the gun into her line of vision, appraising it like she just realized she was carrying it.
“As long as you cooperate, we won’t have to use it,” she said.
“And if I don’t?”
“Then I’m going to have to kill you,” she said bluntly. “Which would be a shame.” It might’ve been my imagination running wild, but she didn’t real y sound like she thought my death would be a shame at all . My hands were growing shaky at the thought when all of a sudden she bent forward and looked up into my eyes.
“You want to be carefull whose side you’re on, Alex,” she said in a quiet voice.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I mumbled, doing my best to keep my attention focused on the road. “I’m not on anybody’s side…Although the fact that you’ve got a gun pointed at me is not real y helping your odds, just so you know.”
“Turn left at this stoplight,” Sera said quietly, settling back in her seat.
“How much further is it?” I asked as I jerked the car into the turning lane.
“Not long now.”
My fingers drummed against the steering wheel as I stared into the glaring red left turn arrow. I swear every other light at that intersection turned green at least three times before it was final y my turn.
As my car final y rolled forward, I pictured my story being shown on one of those unsolved mystery shows—you know, the ones with the crazy twilight-zone music that you find when you’re surfing channels, and you don’t want to watch them, but for some reason you can’t manage to look away, so you stick it out until you learn the outcome and all the grisly details. Hopefully, if it came down to it, my episode wouldn’t have too many grisly details to share.
Or better yet, maybe there’d be no episode at all .
I’d heard about victims of car-jacking who purposely crashed their cars in order to escape, and I was pretty sure that, if it came down to it, I could do that. Of course, there was no guarantee I’d walk away from that crash—so I was saving that for a last resort.
The problem was I was quickly approaching that last resort.
Ever since turning at that stoplight, we seemed to be putting more and more distance between ourselves and civilization—which meant my chances of being able to alert anyone to my situation were growing increasingly slim. As I sped through curve after curve, I started scanning the roadside for possible places to make an effective get-away crash.
(I thought I told you to stay at your house?) Kael’s voice inside my head made me jump. I jerked the steering wheel a little more to the left than I meant to, throwing Sera into me and causing the gun she held to brush against my temple. My eyes widened. I never thought I’d be so happy to be hearing voices in my head.
(Sorry,) I thought back.
“What are you sorry for?” Sera asked suddenly.
Well damn.
(Try and distract her,) Kael thought.
I tried my best not to think anything in response, for fear of Sera’s interception. That, I quickly realized, was not nearly as easy as it sounded— especial y with Sera glaring at me suspiciously the whole time. I needed to stop thinking and start talking.
“Oh…nothing,” I lied, racking my brain for some sort of conversation starter. “I was just…just thinking about how sorry I am that I’m not going to get to see the world like I wanted to. And I’m also kinda sorry this is how it’s going to happen, you know? I mean, assuming you kill me, which hopefully you won’t because…wel , because I always thought I would go some way much cooler than this.”
My voice was surprisingly steady now, considering my situation. My pulse, on the other hand, was a different story —and the fact that Sera still looked as suspicious as ever didn’t help. “Have you ever seen those people who go over Niagra Fal s in barrels?” I said, trying to keep talking. “I always thought that would be a real y cool way to die. That, or jumping out of a plane or something—something to get your adrenaline going before it’s all said and done, you know? Get it going In a good way, I mean—because this has definitely got my heart racing, don’t get me wrong. But not exactly in the way I was hoping my last adrenaline rush would go.”
“You talk entirely too much,” Sera said.
“It’s a nervous habit. I think it’s a pretty common one. I know my sister’s the same way, when she gets nervous she starts talking a mile a minute.” I had to pause, gulp down some air and swallow then, because my mouth was getting so dry. “It’s impossible to shut her up sometimes.”
so dry. “It’s impossible to shut her up sometimes.”
“That’s nice,” Sera said.
“I find it kind of irritating, actual y. I mean real y—sometimes she just wil not shut up, and I have to—”
“Shut-up. Now.” The cold barrel of Sera’s gun was against my temple again, only this time it was deliberate.
“Right. Shutting up,” I said, my voice cracking. What could possibly be taking Kael so long?
“Where is he?” Sera asked quietly.
I realized my mistake even as she spoke. “Where is who?” I said, trying to keep my eyes occupied with the road.
“Don’t play stupid with me, Alex.”
“I’m not playing any—”
“I wonder what could be taking him so long?” Sera said in a mocking voice.
I could hardly argue with her after that. She’d obviously heard my thoughts, and now she was alternating between glaring at me and throwing expectant glances into the rearview mirror. (She…knows you’re coming,) I thought with a frown.
(That’s not going to save her,) Kael replied.
I wished I felt half as confident as he sounded.
(Listen to me, Alex.) His voice stayed confident, but it seemed a lot more urgent all of a sudden. (You’re going to have to stop—quickly so we can throw her off guard. When you reach the end of the long curve up ahead, just hit your brakes as hard as you can, okay?) (Okay,) I thought. I could do that.
Right?
I took a deep breath, doing what I could to avoid Sera’s gaze, and then stomped on the gas pedal so hard we were both thrown against the backs of our seats. The quicker I got around that curve, the better.
“Driving rather fast, aren’t we?” Sera said as she gripped the center armrest for support.
“You’re right. I should slow down.” I muttered as I flew around the curve so fast that my car ended up on the other side of the road. Luckily, no one met us in the other lane.
“Maybe just a—” Sera words were drowned out by the screech of tires ripping through the air.
Both of my arms were braced against the steering wheel, but the strength of the momentum shift was such that I was thrown forward anyway. I hit the steering wheel with a sickening thump, and the wind was knocked out of me. Still gasping for air, I looked sideways to see how Sera had fared, and saw that her face was buried in the dashboard.
She remained like that for several seconds before slowly leaning back into an upright position, turning her venomous gaze on me as she did so.
“Oh…you’re so going to regret that,” she said quietly, her hand reaching to her temple and wiping off the thin trickle of blood running down from it. She pulled her eyes away from mine and looked down. I followed her gaze and saw what she was searching for almost instantly—her gun rested in the center console, glinting in the sunlight.
My hand fell on the gun first, but Sera’s was right on top of mine an instant later. I gripped the barrel as tightly as I possibly could, but Sera gripped my hand even tighter and pushed it down, preventing me from drawing the gun up and making it of any use.
“Remember what I said about cooperating?” Sera said, her “Remember what I said about cooperating?” Sera said, her eyes narrowed. I didn’t reply, I just focused all my energy on trying to wrench the gun and my hand out of her grasp. “You weren’t supposed to be this much trouble,” she added, digging her nails into the flesh on the back of my hand.
“Sorry to disappoint you,” I said with a grunt as I poured as much strength as I could muster into one last effort to free the gun. To my complete surprise, I succeeded—so abruptly that I fell back against the door, clutching it against my chest.
Sera looked surprised too. “Take it,” she snarled. “I doubt you even know how to shoot it… And I don’t need a gun to deal with the likes of you, anyway.”
I fumbled the gun around until I had it pointed at her and gripped it as tightly as I could with shaking, clammy palms.
“Go on—shoot me,” Sera said with a nasty smile.
My finger inched onto the trigger, but there it froze. Our eyes met. The world stopped. There was no sound other than the sound of my own breathing, my own heartbeat. Al of the colors around me faded into black and white as I watched Sera laugh soundlessly from the passenger seat.
It was the sound of shattering glass that eventual y broke the silence. Time seemed to switch into overdrive to make up for what it had lost, and suddenly everything seemed to be trying to happen all at once. I watched as Sera’s expression twisted from triumph to painfully obvious agony.
And the reason behind her rapid mood shift stood in the frame of what had been my passenger door, which was now bent in toward the seat and had been crumpled so easily it might as well have been made of clay.
At first, all I could look at were its teeth, several inches long and dripping with saliva as they latched onto Sera’s shoulder. When I final y forced my eyes away from the its mouth full of daggers, the creature’s familiar blue eyes met mine for a fraction of a second.
“…Kael?” I said uncertainly. He only growled a deep-throated growl in response, then twisted his shaggy, silver head and pulled Sera with ease from the car, and threw her through the air with a toss of that massive head. She landed several yards away on the side of the road with such force that a cloud of dirt exploded around her and gravel scattered from underneath her.
I turned my attention back to what was left of my passenger side door, but Kael had already backed his way out of the gnarled metal frame. Tufts of fur clung to the jagged shards of the broken window, and drops of blood dotted the glass, shining a brilliant, pinkish-red as sunlight poured in through them.
Lifting my eyes away from the shattered window, I saw Kael advancing quickly on Sera’s heaving form. I sat frozen in my seat as Sera climbed to her feet to face him. I wanted to look away. I didn’t want to witness a massacre. She didn’t even have the gun to defend herself—I still held it in my trembling hands. I kept telling myself to look away, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. That might’ve been a good thing though—because what happened next, I probably wouldn’t have believed unless I’d seen it with my own eyes.