Betrayal (Vanish Book Two) Read online

  “You can’t what? Hurt me? You already have. I thought that part was over, but carry on,” I glared at her.

  “I heard footsteps coming in our direction, and the person standing over me ran and hid. You walked over and—” Grace’s voice grew further and further away, until I couldn’t hear it at all. In fact, I couldn’t see anything either; I was being swept away into another vision of the past. This time I would get answers, answers, I wasn’t quite sure I was ready for.

  I sat on the front porch of the house. I heard someone scream, Grace. I ran into the woods, dodging Branches, and roots that stuck up out of the ground. I heard her scream again, and I followed the sound, and soon I was standing over Grace. I got down on my knees.

  “Grace? What happened to you?” my voice trembled.

  “Watch out,” she screamed.

  I got up faster than I thought possible. When I had a second to take in what was happening around me, I noticed a huge gash in my wrist. I couldn’t see their face, but it was definitely a woman. She whipped the knife through the air, cutting me again. I fell back onto the cold, wet ground. I started crawling away, when two men walked up. I was hidden behind a bush; I don’t think they even knew I was there.

  “We will take care of this for you ma’am,” the men said, trying to sound like they were helping.

  “No, I got it, thanks.” Her voice, sent chills down my spine, I couldn’t be sure who she was, not yet. Not until I saw her face.

  “She’s worth a lot to us alive,” the man added.

  “How much?” the woman asked, intrigued.

  “We can talk numbers later, I can write down my address and number, if you have something to write on.”

  “Alright,” she agreed with reluctance. “Will this work?”

  “Yeah, that should work.”

  After he was done, he went to hand it back to her. A large gust of wind blew before she could grab it. It blew out of the man’s hands, and went down what looked like some sort of small cliff.

  “I’m sorry, do you have anything else?”

  “Just write it on my arm,” she snapped.

  I hoped, I wished, I prayed that voice didn’t belong to who it sounded like it did. I sat there in a daze for what seemed like forever, until Grace’s screams snapped me out of it.

  “No,” Grace yelled as they dragged her away.

  I was too afraid to move, not even to save my best friend. Her screams became muffled after a few moments, and soon disappeared altogether.

  The woman picked up the shovel she had leaned up against a tree.

  “You’ve really gotten yourself into some trouble this time,” the woman scolded.

  She struck me in the face, knocking me over. I lay down on the ground, looking up in horror. As she bent down to look at me, the moon shined through a break in the trees, directly onto her face.

  “Mom?” I gasped.

  Chapter 2: Insanity

  I was back to reality before I could see what happened next. I ran my fingers over the scars on my wrists, a souvenir of the ultimate betrayal. No matter what I may have suspected Grace was going to tell me, I would have never thought this.

  “My mom?” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

  I got up and ran upstairs, choosing any room that was empty and locking myself inside. I threw myself face forward onto the bed and cried; I thought it would never stop. The look in her eyes was murderous. She knew who I was, and she wanted to hurt me.

  I racked my brain trying to remember what happened next, but I couldn’t. The next thing I remembered from that night was being shoved into a police cruiser, Joe’s police cruiser. I thought this nightmare was over, but now I realized it hadn’t even begun. The mystery of what happened to Grace, and what happened that night wasn’t close to being solved.

  Dante stood outside banging on the door. I stayed lying face down on the bed, drenching the pillow with my tears. I couldn’t talk to anyone right now, not like this. I needed to confront my mother, but I was afraid, and I didn’t know everything that she needed to be confronted for. I had seen only the beginning of this tragic series of events. For all I know, she’d been planning it for some time, but what I did know is what I saw wasn’t the end, no, not even close.

  This wasn’t fair. I wasn’t allowed to know who my father was. I had no other close family, and my mother was a murderer, or at least she attempted it.

  I sat up, trying to compose myself; I needed to be able to function. It was like being at a friend’s house and being hysterical like this; it would be awkward, and I would just go home. I didn’t have a home. I grabbed a handful of tissues from the nightstand, and walked over to the mirror.

  My face was a little red; I went into the bathroom and splashed some cold water on it. My vivid green eyes were nothing short of miraculous after I cried. My hair, however, was disgusting. My long red locks, now black—the same color as my mother’s—were only another reminder of the fact that I was her daughter, and I needed to change it back. I imagined my beautiful red hair returning. It was still disgusting though, and I needed to settle down, so I decided to take a quick shower. The warm water felt nice as the dirt melted off of me.

  When I got out, I realized all I had was my dirty clothes. I wrapped a towel around myself and went into the bedroom. On the dresser, there was a note.

  Take whatever you need. It’s all new.

  They lived to help people; anyone who wasn’t in the Alliance should take a lesson from them. Was my mother in the Alliance? I asked myself.

  I opened the first drawer underwear, socks, and bras, all with the tags still on them. I grabbed what I needed, along with a green T-shirt and blue jeans.

  Once I got dressed, I opened the door. Dante was still sitting in the hall. He got up without a word, looking at me with what I could only call pity. He came in and shut the door behind him. Before I could reach out for the hug I desperately needed, his arms were wrapped around me.

  “Are you alright?” he asked.

  “No. How could she do this to me?

  “You don’t need her, Scarlett. You never did.”

  “Yeah,” I sighed. I didn’t need her, but I had no one left. No Mom, no Grace, at least not the one I knew. I didn’t have anyone else to begin with. Dante was all I had left.

  There was a balcony outside of the sliding glass door. The moon shined over what looked like a lake in the distance. The trees glowed a little, like it could sense us here, but we weren’t standing on the soil. The lake, too, looked like it was glowing. I held onto the rail and just looked out, pondering what my life was becoming. I didn’t have much of a family before, but at least I had one. My group of friends wasn’t huge, but at least they made me feel better, and I could make them feel better. That was no more. Dante was there for me, but did I really want to invest my whole life into a boyfriend?

  He stood behind me, wrapping his arms around my waist. He moved my hair aside and whispered in my ear.

  “Everything is going to get better.”

  “No it won’t, maybe someday, but not yet,” I sighed.

  “What do you mean?” he asked.

  “This isn’t over, not by a long shot.”

  “Let it be over tonight. We can worry about this in the morning,” he whispered.

  “I can’t just push everything aside and pretend like life is perfect, Dante.”

  “I know, but you can try and feel a little better, if only for a few minutes. I thought once we found Grace, everything would be okay, but here you are, miserable all over again. I hate seeing you like this.”

  “What about your family?” I blurted.

  “What about them? I’m old enough to be on my own.”

  “I know, but what if someone is still coming after us? They couldn’t do much to me or Annabelle, but they could find your family.”

  “I’m sure they’re fine. They have powers too; they can take care of themselves. I should probably call them tomorrow; I haven’t had the opportunity to do that in
a long time.”

  “Yes, you should.”

  I felt awful for tearing him away from his family. They were very close; his brothers were his best friends. Well, besides Grace and me.

  “I will, and I promise someday soon everything will get better.”

  “You can’t promise that.”

  “Okay, I promise that no matter what happens, I’ll be right here,” he pushed the hair away from my ear. “I lo—”

  “No,” I squirmed away and went back inside the house.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “You’re just saying what you think I want to hear,” I accused.

  “No, I’m not. I’ll admit this is a difficult situation, but I’ve loved you for years.” I didn’t know what to say. If I say it back I might be lying to not only him, but myself.

  “Let’s just cool it for a while, okay?” I touched his cheek.

  “No problem,” he said, acting nonchalant, though I could tell I hurt his feelings. “Do you want to go check out the lake?”

  “Alright, but we should make sure Annabelle’s okay first.”

  “I don’t think she is okay. She doesn’t know if her parents are alive,” Dante said.

  “Oh I didn’t tell you? I talked to them; they’re dead, but I think being able to talk to them helped her a lot. I just want to make sure. Cooper went in there, but I don’t know if he left yet.”

  I peeked in. Cooper was still there, and they were sleeping, cuddled up together. I shut the door, being as quiet as I could. I couldn’t help the smile on my face. I hadn’t known Annabelle for very long, but we had quickly become friends, and I liked seeing her happy. It was odd how even though she found out her parents were dead, just knowing they were okay somewhere was enough to have some peace of mind.

  As we stepped out the front door, everything glowed, instead of the faint white, everything was pink. I looked at Dante; he looked back at me and smiled. The brightest light came from the direction of the lake.

  “I can’t believe all of this; this can’t be real,” I sighed. “I’m still waiting to wake up in the hospital after a heavy drugging.” He laughed, but I was serious.

  “It’s all real; it can be horrible, or it can be magical. That’s your choice and yours alone.”

  “Will anything be normal after this?” I wondered aloud.

  “Do you want the truth?” he asked.

  “Yes.”

  “No, nothing will be normal. Things will get tough, tougher than most people could imagine, but things like this…” he said, looking around. “…aren’t all that rare in this world we’ve been thrown into.”

  “But I thought—”

  “This was the only place like this?” he asked, not waiting for an answer. “No, it’s the most powerful for keeping evil away, but our magic can do far more than we know.” He grabbed both of my hands and closed his eyes. “Do you feel that?” he asked.

  “Yes,” I whispered, out of breath. It was like electricity, flowing through him to me.

  “We learn everything in the real world, and we think that’s how it’s supposed to be. It is for normal people. We’ve mastered the concepts of that world, at least as much as we could at this age. When we find someone like us, someone we feel something for, it’s almost an instant connection. It doesn’t feel right, not in the real world. We try to fight it, but soon we realize where we are now, is more real than anything we’d known before. Everything becomes normal, though you’ll never get over the amazing things that can happen,” Dante explained.

  “And what about all the death, all the violence, everyone that’s come after us that wants us dead?” I blurted.

  “For most people, even people like us, that would be a problem. We came through it, stronger than ever. Everything inside me tells me to talk you out of what you’re thinking, but I know you can handle it; I know we can handle it,” he admitted.

  “People have died, right in front of us, and to be honest I’m afraid of just how normal that’s starting to feel. You have a problem, you kill it. My mom is a problem, but I don’t know if I can…” I felt the tears returning.

  “You do what you need to do,” he said, looking into my eyes. “But you did kind of scare me when you stabbed that guy to death.”

  “I know; that’s what I’m saying,” I let my head fall. He pulled me close to him.

  “He was a bad man, Scarlett. You don’t have the urge to kill any of us do you?”

  “No, not at all, it was just so easy,” I mumbled against his chest. “Doesn’t that make me evil? Aren’t there more civil ways to solve your problems?”

  “Unfortunately, no. In the real world, maybe…” he stressed the word maybe, “…but not here.”

  “I just feel like I’m crazy,” I sighed.

  “You’re fine. Sometimes that’s what it takes to survive, and things aren’t always simple. The police can’t be involved. They want to kill you; you kill them, problem solved, as messed up as it may seem,” he muttered.

  “Okay, enough about this.”

  I put my arm around him and continued walking. He pushed aside a big branch, and there was the lake.

  Chapter 3: Beauty

  I stood motionless in front of the water. I searched my brain, trying to remember a place as perfect as this, but I couldn’t. Sure the forest itself was magnificent, but this… this was incredible. The sun was just about to set; we got here just in time. The trees gathered around the water, casting their reflection onto the surface. The sun lit the lake up and gave it an almost orange appearance. Dante Grabbed my hand and led me over to a dock that went about ten feet into the water. The sun had hidden behind the trees, and the icy fall air filled my lungs. I sat cross-legged on the dock, not wanting to dip my feet into the even-colder water. Then I noticed steam emerging up from the surface. I took my shoes off and submerged my feet into the water. It was… warm.

  “What are you thinking about?” he asked in a soft voice as he dipped his feet in as well.

  “Everything,” I said, staring at the lake.

  “Anything in particular?”

  “How am I going to make this work? If we’re going to be stuck here forever—” I began.

  “What do you mean, stuck here? Most people like us would kill to live here. Grace will come around, and you‘ll have your two best friends here with you.”

  “Yeah, but she needs to talk about what she went through that’s the only way she’ll feel better,” I objected.

  “And when she’s ready, I’m sure she’ll come to you,” he assured.

  “Yeah, I guess.”

  “We found her, Scarlett. Please just try to be happy,” he begged.

  “You’re right,” I said, turning towards him and putting my arms around his neck.

  He smiled and brought his lips almost to mine. His face was flawless as the pink light given off by the lake danced across his face.

  “Of course I am.”

  He moved a lock of hair out of my face before kissing me. He ran his fingers down the back of my neck. For a moment, I could feel what he was talking about before. I was pushing him away because it felt wrong to go so fast from being friends to this. I wasn’t quite sure what this was, but I knew it was something that I couldn’t push away. I shook my head and got up. He looked confused.

  “You want to go for a swim?” I asked as he got up.

  “I don’t know. I wasn’t really planning on….” Before he could finish his sentence, I pushed him into the lake.

  When he surfaced, he had a huge smile on his face. I returned the smile, and then did a huge cannonball right next to him. When I came up, I had no time to gasp for air, I couldn’t stop laughing. He swam up to me and went to dunk me under, but I dunked him first; he didn’t put up much of a fight.

  “I’m going to get you,” he laughed when he came up.

  “You have to catch me,” I yelled as I swam away.

  He caught me, and I dunked him again. While he was under, he grabbed my foot, and pull
ed me under with him. I opened my eyes, and it was like nothing I’d ever seen before. I used to swim in the lake by my house and look up at the sky from under. That was beautiful, but this was amazing. You couldn’t tell it was night under the water; it was lit up so bright, the pink bubbles sparkled. I came up for air, and Dante grabbed me by the waist.

  We both went under together, even though it was awkward, we kissed under the water, both of us came up laughing. We swam around for a while and decided to get out. I imagined two towels lying on the beach; this power could really come in handy. The air felt much colder than it did before we went in the lake, I could feel my teeth chattering. He took his towel and held it on his left side, then he wrapped it around his back and then around me.

  I could get used to living here. It was amazing, but I felt like I needed some time away. When I came back, I would appreciate this how it should be appreciated.

  My eye lids got heavy; everything went blurry, and soon I was sucked into another vision of the night Grace disappeared.

  I was back in the woods, next to the bush I’d hidden behind. My mother followed the men as they took Grace away.

  “Why is she worth so much to you?” She asked, curious.

  “Bait,” one man replied in a deep, unpleasant voice.

  “Bait, for what?” She demanded. “Come on spit it out.”

  “I think that’s her mom,” the one man said to the other.

  “Scarlett?” She said with fury. “Well that’s going to raise the price quite a bit.” I peeked around the bush. She had grabbed onto Grace refusing to let her leave until they agreed.